Hinduism

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HINDUISM

HINDUISM . Hinduism is the religion followed by about 70 percent of the roughly seven hundred million people of India. Elsewhere, with the exception of the Indonesian island of Bali, Hindus represent only minority populations. The geographical boundaries of today's India are not, however, adequate to contour a full account of this religion. Over different periods in the last four or five millennia, Hinduism and its antecedents have predominated in the adjacent areas of Pakistan and Bangladesh and have been influential in such other regions as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia. But in these areas Hindu influences have been superseded or overshadowed by the influences of other religions, principally Buddhism and Islam. This account will treat only of Hinduism as it has taken shape historically in the "greater India" of the Indian subcontinent.

Indus Valley Religion

There are good reasons to suspect that a largely unknown quantity, the religion of the peoples of the Indus Valley, is an important source for determining the roots of Hinduism.

The Indus Valley civilization arose from Neolithic and Chalcolithic village foundations at about the middle of the third millennium bce as a late contemporary of Egyptian and Mesopotamian riverine civilizations. It engaged in trade with both, though mostly with Mesopotamia. Reaching its apogee around 2000 bce, it then suffered a long period of intermittent and multifactored decline culminating in its eclipse around 1600 bce, apparently before the coming of the Aryan peoples and their introduction of the Vedic religious current. At its peak, the Indus Valley civilization extended over most of present-day Pakistan, into India as far eastward as near Delhi, and southward as far as the estuaries of the Narmada River. It was apparently dominated by the two cities of Mohenjo-Daro, on the Indus River in Sind, and Harappa, about 350 miles to the northwest on a former course of the Ravi River, one of the tributaries to the Indus. Despite their distance from each other, the two cities show remarkable uniformity in material and design, and it has been supposed that they formed a pair of religious and administrative centers.

The determination of the nature of Indus Valley religion and of its residual impact upon Hinduism are, however, most problematic. Although archaeological sites have yielded many suggestive material remains, the interpretation of such finds is conjectural and has been thwarted especially by the continued resistance of the Indus Valley script, found on numerous steatite seals, to convincing decipherment. Until it is deciphered, little can be said with assurance. The content of the inscriptions may prove to be minimal, but if the language (most likely Dravidian) can be identified, much can be resolved.

At both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, the cities were dominated on the western side by an artificially elevated mound that housed a citadel-type complex of buildings. Though no temples or shrines can be identified, the complex probably served both sacred and administrative functions. A "great bath" within the Mohenjo-Daro citadel, plus elaborate bathing and drainage facilities in residences throughout the cities, suggests a strong concern for personal cleanliness, cultic bathing, and ritual purity such as resurface in later Hinduism. Indeed, the "great bath," a bitumen-lined tank with steps leading into and out of it from either end, suggests not only the temple tanks of later Hinduism but the notion of "crossing" associated with them through their Sanskrit name, tīrtha ("crossing place, ford").

A granary attached to the citadel may also have involved high officials in ceremonial supervision of harvests and other agricultural rituals. Terracotta female figurines with pedestal waists, found especially at village sites, reveal at least a popular cultic interest in fertility. They are probably linked with worship of a goddess under various aspects, for while some portray the figure in benign nurturing poses, others present pinched and grim features that have been likened to grinning skulls: These are likely foreshadowings of the Hindu Goddess in her benign and destructive aspects.

But most controversial are the depictions on the seals, whose inscriptions remain undeciphered. Most prominently figured are powerful male animals. They are often shown in cultic scenes, as before a sort of "sacred manger," or being led by a priestly ministrant before a figure (probably a deity and possibly a goddess) in a peepul tree, one of the most venerated trees in Hinduism. Male animals also frequently figure in combination with human males in composite animal-human forms. With female figures seemingly linked to the Goddess and males associated with animal power, it has been suggested that the two represent complementary aspects of a fertility cult with attendant sacrificial scenarios such as are found in the animal sacrifice to the Goddess in post-Vedic Hinduism. In such sacrifices the Goddess requires male offerings, and the animal represents the human male sacrificer. Most interesting and controveial in this connection is a figure in a yogic posture who is depicted on three seals and a faience sealing. Though features differ in the four portrayals, the most fully defined one shows him seated on a dais with an erect phallus. He has buffalo horns that enclose a treelike miter headdress, possibly a caricatured buffalo face, wears bangles and necklaces or torques, and is surrounded by four wild animals. Some of these associations (yoga, ithyphallicism, lordship of animals) have suggested an identification with the later Hindu god Śiva. Other traits (the buffalo-man composite form, association with wild animals, possible intimations of sacrifice) have suggested a foreshadowing of the buffalo demon Mashāsura, mythic antagonist and sacrificial victim of the later Hindu goddess Durgā. Possibly the image crystallizes traits that are later associated with both of these figures.

The notion that features of Indus Valley religion form a stream with later non-Aryan religious currents that percolate into Hinduism has somewhat dismissively been called the substratum theory by opponents who argue in favor of treating the development of Hinduism as derivable from within its own sacred literature. Though this "substratum" cannot be known except in the ways that it has been structured within Hinduism (and no doubt also within Jainism and Buddhism), it is clear that a two-way process was initiated as early as the Vedic period and has continued to the present.

Vedism

The early sacred literature of Hinduism has the retrospective title of Veda ("knowledge") and is also known as śruti ("that which is heard"). Altogether it is a prodigious body of literature, originally oral in character (thus "heard"), that evolved into its present form over nine or ten centuries between about 1400 and 400 bce. In all, four types of texts fall under the Veda-śruti heading: Sahitās, Brāhamaas, rayakas, and Upaniads. At the fount of all later elaborations are the four Sahitās ("collections"): the gveda Sahitā (Veda of Chants, the oldest), the Sāmaveda and Yajurveda Sahitā s (Vedas of Melodies and Sacrificial Formulas, together known as the "liturgical" Sahitās), and the Atharvaveda Sahitā (the youngest, named after the sage Atharvan). These constitute the four Vedas, with some early sources referring to the "three Vedas" exclusive of the last. The material of the four was probably complete by 1000 bce, with younger parts of the older works overlapping older parts of the younger ones chronologically. The Sahitās, or portions of them, were preserved by different priestly schools or "branches" (śākhā s) through elaborate means of memorization. Many of these schools died out and their branches became lost, but others survived to preserve material for literary compilation and redaction. The subsequent works in the categories of Brāhamaa, rayaka, and Upaniad are all linked with one or another of the Vedic schools, and thus with a particular Vedic Sahitā, so that they represent the further literary output of the Vedic schools and also the interests of the four types of priests who came to be associated differentially with the ritual uses of the four Sahitās. It is from the gveda that Vedic religion in its earliest sense must be reconstructed.

Although the urban civilization of the Indus Valley had run its course by the time of the arrival of the Aryans in about 1500 bce, the newcomers met heirs of this civilization in settled agricultural communities. The contrast between cultures was striking to the Aryans, who described the indigenous population as having darker skin, defending themselves from forts, having no gods or religious rituals but nonetheless worshiping the phallus. As small stone phallic objects have been found at Indus Valley sites, this is probably an accurate description of a cult continued from pre-Vedic Indus Valley religion that prefigures the later veneration of the liga (phallus) in the worship of Śiva. In contrast to this predominantly agricultural population, the invading Aryans were a mobile, warlike people, unattached to cities or specific locations, entering Northwest India in tribal waves probably over a period of several centuries. Moreover, their society inherited an organizing principle from its Indo-European past that was to have great impact on later Indian civilization in the formation of the caste system. The ideal arrangement, which myths and ritual formulas propounded and society was to reflect, called for three social "functions": the priests, the warriors, and the agriculturalist-stockbreeders. Early Vedic hymns already speak of three such interacting social groups, plus a fourththe indigenous population of dāsa, or dasyu (literally, "slaves," first mythologized as demon foes of the Aryans and their gods). By the time of the late gveda, these peoples were recognized as a fourth "class" or "caste" in the total society and were known as śūdra s.

Most crucial to the inspiration of the early Vedic religion, however, was the interaction between the first two groups: the priesthood, organized around sacerdotal schools maintained through family and clan lines, and a warrior component, originally led by chieftains of the mobile tribal communities but from the beginning concerned with an ideal of kingship that soon took on more local forms. Whereas the priests served as repositories of sacred lore, poetry, ritual technique, and mystical speculation, the warriors served as patrons of the rites and ceremonies of the priests and as sponsors of their poetry. These two groups, ideally complementary but often having rival interests, crystallized by late Vedic and Brahmanic times into distinct "classes": the brāhamaa s (priests) and the katriya s (warriors).

Although the gveda alludes to numerous details of ritual that soon came to be systematized in the religion of the Brāhamaas, it brings ritual into relief only secondarily. The primary focus of the 1,028 hymns of the gveda is on praising the gods and the cosmic order (ta ), which they protect. But insofar as the hymns invoke the gods to attend the sacrifice, there is abundant interest in two deities of essentially ritual character: Agni and Soma. Agni (Fire) is more specifically the god of the sacrificial fire who receives offerings to the gods and conveys them heavenward through the smoke. And Soma is the divinized plant of "nondeath" (amta ), or immortality, whose juices are ritually extracted in the soma sacrifice, a central feature of many Vedic and Brahmanic rituals. These two gods, significantly close to humankind, are mediators between humans and other gods. But they are especially praised for their capacity to inspire in the poets the special "vision" (dhī) that stimulates the composition of the Vedic hymns. Agni, who as a god of fire and light is present in the three Vedic worlds (as fire on earth, lightning in the atmosphere, and the sun in heaven), bestows vision through "illumination" into the analogical connections and equivalences that compose the ta (which is itself said to have a luminous nature). Soma, the extracted and purified juice of the "plant of immortality," possibly the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom, yields a "purified" vision that is described as "enthused" or "intoxicated," tremulous or vibrant, again stimulating the inspiration for poetry. The Vedic poet (kavi, i, or vipra ) was thus a "seeer," or seer, who translated his vision into speech, thus producing the sacred mantra s, or verse-prayers, that comprise the Vedic hymns. Vedic utterance, itself hypostatized as the goddess Vāc (Speech), is thus the crystallization of this vision.

Vedic religion is decidedly polytheistic, there being far more than the so-called thirty-three gods, the number to which they are sometimes reduced. Though the point is controveial, for the sake of simplification one can say that at the core or "axis" of the pantheon there are certain deities with clear Indo-European or at least Indo-Iranian backgrounds: the liturgical gods Agni and Soma (cf. the Avestan deity Haoma) and the deities who oversee the three "functions" on the cosmic scale: the cosmic sovereign gods Varua and Mitra, the warrior god Indra, and the Aśvins, twin horsemen concerned with pastoralism, among other things. Intersecting this structure is an opposition of Indo-Iranian background between deva s and asura s. In the gveda both terms may refer to ranks among the gods, with asura being higher and more primal. But asura also has the Vedic meaning of "demon," which it retains in later Hinduism, so that the devaasura opposition also takes on dualistic overtones. Varua is the asura par excellence, whereas Indra is the leader of the deva s. These two deities are thus sometimes in opposition and sometimes in complementary roles: Varua being the remote overseer of the cosmic order (ta ) and punisher of individual human sins that violate it; Indra being the dynamic creator and upholder of that order, leader of the perennial fight against the collective demonic forces, both human and divine, that oppose it. It is particularly his conquest of the asura Vtra ("encloser")whose name suggests ambiguous etymological connections with Varuathat creates order or being (sat, analogous to ta ) out of chaos or nonbeing (asat ) and opens cosmic and earthly space for "freedom of movement" (varivas ) by gods and humans. Considerable attention is also devoted to three solar deities whose freedom of movement, thus secured, is a manifestation of the ta, a prominent analogy for which is the solar wheel: Sūrya and Savit (the Sun under different aspects) and Uas (charming goddess of the dawn). Other highly significant deities are Yama, god of the dead, and Vāyu, god of wind and breath. It is often pointed out that the gods who become most important in later HinduismViu, Śiva (Vedic Rudra), and the Goddessare statistically rather insignificant in the Veda, for few hymns are devoted to them. But the content rather than the quantity of the references hints at their significance. Viu's centrality and cosmological ultimacy, Rudra's destructive power and outsiderhood, and the this-worldly dynamic aspects of several goddesses are traits that assume great proportions in later characterizations of these deities.

Although it is thus possible to outline certain structural and historical features that go into the makeup of the Vedic pantheon, it is important to recognize that these are obscured by certain features of the hymns that arise from the type of religious "vision" that inspired them, and that provide the basis for speculative and philosophical trends that emerge in the late Veda and continue into the early Brahmanic tradition. The hymns glorify the god they address in terms generally applicable to other gods (brilliance, power, beneficence, wisdom) and often endow him or her with mythical traits and actions particular to other gods (supporting heaven, preparing the sun's path, slaying Vtra, and so on). Thus, while homologies and "connections" between the gods are envisioned, essential distinctions between them are implicitly denied. Speculation on what is essentialnot only as concerns the gods, but the ritual and the mantra s that invoke themis thus initiated in the poetic process of the early hymns and gains in urgency and refinement in late portions of the gveda and the subsequent "Vedic" speculative-philosophical literature that culminates in the Upaniads. Most important of these speculations historically were those concerning the cosmogonic sacrifices of Purua in gveda 10.90 (the Puruasūkta, accounting for, among other things, the origin of the four castes) and of Prajāpati in the Brāhamaas. Each must be discussed further. In addition, speculations on brahman as the power inherent in holy speech and on the ātman ("self") as the irreducible element of personal experience are both traceable to Vedic writings (the latter to the Atharvaveda only). This article shall observe the convergence of all these lines of speculation in the Upaniads and classical Hinduism.

Religion of the BrĀhamaas

The elaboration of Vedic religion into the sacrificial religion of the Brāhamaas is largely a result of systematization. The first indication of this trend is the compilation of the liturgical Sahitās and the development of the distinctive priestly schools and interests that produced these compendiums. Thus, while the gveda became the province of the hot priest, the pourer of oblations and invoker of gods through the mantra s (the term hot, "pourer," figures often in the gveda and has Indo-Iranian origins), the newer collections developed around the concerns of specialist priests barely alluded to in the gveda and serving originally in subordinate ritual roles. The Sāmaveda was a collection of verses taken mostly from the gveda, set to various melodies (sāman s) for use mainly in the soma sacrifice, and sung primarily by the udgāt priest, who thus came to surpass the hot as a specialist in the sound and articulation of the mantras. And the Yajurveda was a collection of yaju s, selected sacrificial mantra s, again mostly from the gveda, plus certain complete sentences, to be murmured by the adhvaryu priest, who concerned himself not so much with their sound as with their appropriateness in the ritual, in which he became effectively the master of ceremonies, responsible for carrying out all the basic manual operations, even replacing the hot priest as pourer of oblations. A fourth group of priests, the brāhamaa s, then claimed affiliation with the Atharvaveda and assumed the responsibility for overseeing the entire ritual performance of the other priests and counteracting any of their mistakes (they were supposed to know the other three Vedas as well as their own) by silent recitation of mantra s from the Atharvaveda. As specialization increased, each priest of these four main classes took on three main assistants.

The Brāhamaasexpositions of brahman, the sacred power inherent in mantra and more specifically now in the ritualare the outgrowth of the concerns of these distinctive priestly schools and the first articulation of their religion. Each class of priests developed its own Brāhamaas, the most important and comprehensive being the Śatapatha Brāhamaa of one of the Yajurveda schools. The ritual system was also further refined in additional manuals: the Śrautasūtras, concerned with "solemn" rites, first described in the Brāhamaas and thus called śrauta because of their provenance in these śruti texts, and the Ghyasūtras, concerned with domestic rites (from gha, "home"), justified by "tradition" (smti ) but still having much of Vedic origins. The Śrautasūtras were compiled over the period, roughly, from the Brāhamaas to the Upaniads, and the Ghyasūtras were probably compiled during Upaniadic times.

The domestic rites take place at a single offering fire and usually involve offerings of only grain or ghee (clarified butter). Along with the maintenance of the household fire and the performance of the so-called Five Great Sacrificesto brahman (in the form of Vedic recitation), to ancestors, to gods, to other "beings," and to humans (hospitality rites)the most prominent ghya ceremonies are the sacraments or life-cycle rites (saskāra s). Of these, the most important are the rites of conception and birth of a male child; the Upanayana, or "introduction," of boys to a brāhamaa preceptor or guru for initiation; marriage; and death by cremation (Antyei, "final offering"). The Upanayana, involving the investiture of boys of the upper three social classes (vara s) with a sacred thread, conferred on them the status of "twice-born" (dvija, a term first used in the Atharvaveda ), and their "second birth" permitted them to hear the Veda and thereby participate in the śrauta rites that, according to the emerging Brahmanic orthodoxy, would make it possible to obtain immortality.

The śrauta rites are more elaborate and are representative of the sacrificial system in its full complexity, involving ceremonies that lasted up to two years and enlisted as many as seventeen priests. Through the continued performance of daily, bimonthly, and seasonal śrauta rites one gains the year, which is itself identified with the sacrificial life-death-regeneration round and its divine personification, Prajāpati. In surpassing the year by the Agnicayana, the "piling of the fire altar," one gains immortality and needs no more nourishment in the otherworld (see Śatapatha Brāhamaa 10.1.5.4).

Śrauta rites required a sacrificial terrain near the home of the sacrificer (yajamāna ), with three sacred fires (representing, among other things, the three worlds) and an upraised altar, or vedī. Nonanimal sacrifices of the first varieties mentioned involved offerings of milk and vegetable substances or even of mantra s. Animal sacrifices (paśubandhu )which required a more elaborate sacrificial area with a supplemental altar and a sacrificial stake (yūpā )entailed primarily the sacrifice of a goat. Five male animalsman, horse, bull, ram, and goatare declared suitable for sacrifice. It is likely, however, that human sacrifice existed only on the "ideal" plane, where it was personified in the cosmic sacrifices of Purua and Prajāpati. The animal (paśu ) was to be immolated by strangulation, and its omentum, rich in fat, offered into the fire. Soma sacrifices, which would normally incorporate animal sacrifices within them plus a vast number of other subrites, involved the pressing and offering of soma. The most basic of these was the annual Agnioma, "in praise of Agni," a four-day rite culminating in morning, afternoon, and evening soma pressings on the final day and including two goat sacrifices. Three of the most ambitious soma sacrifices were royal rites: the Aśvamedha, the horse sacrifice; the Rājasūya, royal consecration; and the Vājapeya, a soma sacrifice of the "drink of strength." But the most complex of all was the aforementioned Agnicayana.

A thread that runs through most śrauta rituals, however, is that they must begin with the "faith" or "confidence" (śrāddha) of the sacrificer in the efficacy of the rite and the capacity of the officiating priests to perform it correctly. This prepares the sacrificer for the consecration (dīkā) in which, through acts of asceticism (tapas), he takes on the aspect of an embryo to be reborn through the rite. As dīkita (one undergoing the dīkā), he makes an offering of himself (his ātman ). This then prepares him to make the sacrificial offering proper (the yajña, "sacrifice") as a means to redeem or ransom this self by the substance (animal or otherwise) offered. Then, reveing the concentration of power that he has amassed in the dīkā, he disperses wealth in the form of dakinā s (honoraria) to the priests. Finally, the rite is disassembled (the ritual analogue to the repeated death of Prajāpati before his reconstitution in another rite), and the sacrificer and his wife bathe to disengage themselves from the sacrifice and reenter the profane world.

In the elaboration of such ceremonies and the speculative explanation of them in the Brāhamaas, the earlier Vedic religion seems to have been much altered. In the religion of the Brāhamaas, the priests, as "those who know thus" (evamvid s), view themselves as more powerful than the gods. Meanwhile, the gods and the demons (asura s) are reduced to representing in their endless conflicts the recurrent interplay between agonistic forces in the sacrifice. It is their father, Prajāpati, who crystallizes the concerns of Brahmanic thought by representing the sacrifice in all its aspects and processes. Most notable of these is the notion of the assembly or fabrication of an immortal self (ātman ) through ritual action (karman ), a self constructed for the sacrificer by which he identifies with the immortal essence of Prajāpati as the sacrifice personified. And by the same token, the recurrent death (punarmtyu, "redeath") of Prajāpati's transitory nature (the elements of the sacrifice that are assembled and disassembled) figures in the Brāhamaas as the object to be avoided for the sacrificer by the correct ritual performance. This Brahmanic concept of Prajāpati's redeath, along with speculation on the ancestral ghya rites (śrāddha s) focused on feeding deceased relatives to sustain them in the afterlife, must have been factors in the thinking that gave rise to the Upaniadic concept of reincarnation (punarjanman, "rebirth"). The emphasis on the morbid and transitory aspects of Prajāpati and the sacrifice, and the insistence that asceticism within the sacrifice is the main means to overcome them, are most vigorously propounded in connection with the Agnicayana.

In the Brāhamaas' recasting of the primal once- and for-all sacrifice of Purua into the recurrent life-death-regeneration mythology of Prajāpati, a different theology was introduced. Though sometimes Purua was identified with Prajāpati, the latter, bound to the round of creation and destruction, became the prototype for the classical god Brahmā, personification of the Absolute (brahman ) as it is oriented toward the world. The concept of a transcendent Purua, however, was not forgotten in the Brāhamaas. Śatapatha Brāhamaa 13.6 mentions Purua-Nārāyaa, a being who seeks to surpass all others through sacrifice and thereby become the universe. In classical Hinduism, Nārāyaa and Purua are both names for Viu as the supreme divinity. This Brāhamaa passage neither authorizes nor disallows an identification with Viu, but other Brāhamaa passages leave no doubt that sacrificial formulations have given Viu and Rudra-Śiva a new status. Whereas the Brāhamaas repeatedly assert that "Viu is the sacrifice"principally in terms of the organization of sacrificial space that is brought about through Viu's three steps through the cosmos, and his promotion of the order and prosperity that thus accruethey portray Rudra as the essential outsider to this sacrificial order, the one who neutralizes the impure forces that threaten it from outside as well as the violence that is inherent within. Biardeau (1976) has been able to show that the later elevation of Viu and Śiva through yoga and bhakti is rooted in oppositional complementarities first formulated in the context of the Brahmanic sacrifice.

The Upaniads

Several trends contributed to the emergence of the Upaniadic outlook. Earlier speculations on the irreducible essence of the cosmos, the sacrifice, and individual experience have been mentioned. Pre-Upaniadic texts also refer to various forms of asceticism as performed by types of people who in one way or another rejected or inverted conventional social norms: the Vedic muni, vrātya, and brahmacārin, to each of whom is ascribed ecstatic capacities, and, at the very heart of the Brahmanic sacrifice, the dīkita (the sacrificer who performs tapas while undergoing the dīkā, or consecration). These speculative and ascetic trends all make contributions to a class of texts generally regarded as intermediary between the Brāhamaas and Upaniads: the rayakas, or "Forest Books." The rayakas do not differ markedly from the works that precede and succeed them (the Bhadārayaka Upaniad is both an rayaka and an Upaniad), but their transitional character is marked by a shift in the sacrificial setting from domestic surroundings to the forest and a focus not so much on the details of ritual as on its interiorization and universalization. Sacrifice, for instance, is likened to the alternation that takes place between breathing and speaking. Thus correspondences are established between aspects of sacrifice and the life continuum of the meditator.

An upaniad is literally a mysticaloften "secret""connection," interpreted as the teaching of mystical homologies. Or, in a more conventional etymology, it is the "sitting down" of a disciple "near to" (upa, "near"; ni, "down"; sad, "sit") his spiritual master, or guru. Each Upaniad reflects the Vedic orientation of its priestly school. There are also regional orientations, for Upaniadic geography registers the further eastern settlement of the Vedic tradition into areas of the Ganges Basin. But the Upaniads do share certain fundamental points of outlook that are more basic than their differences. Vedic polytheism is demythologized, for all gods are reducible to one. Brahmanic ritualism is reassessed and its understanding of ritual action (karman ) thoroughly reinterpreted. Karman can no longer be regarded as a positive means to the constitution of a permanent self. Rather, it is ultimately negative: "the world that is won by work (karman )" and "the world that is won by merit (puya )" only perish (Chāndogya Upaniad 8.1.6). The "law of karma" (karman ) or "law of causality" represents a strict and universal cause-effect continuum that affects any action that is motivated by desire (kāma ), whether it be desire for good or for ill. Thus even meritorious actions that lead to the Vedic heaven "perish," leaving a momentum that carries the individual to additional births or reincarnations. The result is perpetual bondage to the universal flow-continuum of all karman, or saśara (from sa, "together" and s, "flow"), a term that the Upaniads introduce into the Vedic tradition but that is shared with Jainism and Buddhism. As with these religions, the Upaniads and Hinduism henceforth conceive their soteriological goal as liberation from this cycle of saśara: that is, moka or mukti ("release").

Moka cannot be achieved by action alone, because action only leads to further action. Thus, though ritual action is not generally rejected and is often still encouraged in the Upaniads, it can only be subordinated to pursuit of the higher moka ideal. Rather, the new emphasis is on knowledge (vidyā, jñāna ) and the overcoming of ignorance (avidyā ). The knowledge sought, however, is not that of ritual technique or even of ritual-based homologies, but a graspable, revelatory, and experiential knowledge of the self as one with ultimate reality. In the early Upaniads this experience is formulated as the realization of the ultimate "connection," the oneness of ātman-brahman, a connection knowable only in the context of communication from guru to disciple. (Herein can be seen the basis of the parable context and vivid, immediate imagery of many Upaniadic teachings.) The experience thus achieved is variously described as one of unified consciousness, fearlessness, bliss, and tranquillity.

Beyond these common themes, however, and despite the fact that Upaniadic thought is resistant to systematization, certain different strains can be identified. Of the thirteen Upaniads usually counted as śruti, the earliest (c. 700500 bce) are those in prose, headed by the Bhadārayaka and the Chāndogya. Generally, it may be said that these Upaniads introduce the formulations that later Hinduism will develop into the sanyāsa ideal of renunciation (not yet defined in the Upaniads as a fourth stage of life) and the knowledge-path outlook of nondualistic (advaita ) Vedānta. Even within these early Upaniads, two approaches to realization can be distinguished. One refers to an all-excluding Absolute; the self that is identified with brahman, characterized as neti neti ("not this, not this"), is reached through a paring away of the psychomental continuum and its links with karman. Such an approach dominates the Bhadā-rayaka Upaniad. Avidyā here results from regarding the name and form of things as real and forming attachment to them. The other approach involves an all-comprehensive Absolute, brahman-ātman, which penetrates the world so that all forms are modifications of the one; ignorance results from the failure to experience this immediacy. In the Chāndogya Upaniad this second approach is epitomized in the persistent formula "Tat tvam asi" ("That thou art").

The later Vedic Upaniads (c. 600400 bce) register the first impact of theistic devotional formulations, and of early Sākhya and Yoga. Most important of these historically are two "yogic" Upaniads, the Śvetāśvatara and the Kaha, the first focused on Rudra-Śiva and the second on Viu. Each incorporates into its terminology for the absolute deity the earlier term purua. As Biardeau has shown in L'hindouisme (1981), they thus draw on an alternate term for the Absolute from that made current in the brahman-ātman equation. The Purua of gveda 10.90 (the Puruasūkta ) is sacrificed to create the ordered and integrated sociocosmic world of Vedic man. But only one quarter of this Purua is "all beings"; three quarters are "the immortal in heaven" (RV 10.90.3). This transcendent aspect of Purua, and also a certain "personal" dimension, are traits that were retained in the characterization of Purua-Nārāyaa in the Śatapatha Brāhamaa and reinforced in the yogic characterizations of Rudra-Śiva and Viu in the previously mentioned Upaniads. The Upaniadic texts do not restrict the usage of the term Purua to mean "soul," as classical Sākhya later does; rather, it is used to refer to both the soul and the supreme divinity. The relation between the soul and the Absolute is thus doubly defined: on the one hand as ātman-brahman, on the other as purua -Purua. In the latter case, the Kaha Upaniad describes a spiritual itinerary of the soul's ascent through yogic states to the supreme Purua, Viu. This synthesis of yoga and bhakti will be carried forward into the devotional formulations of the epics and the Purāas. But one must note that the two vocabularies are used concurrently and interrelatedly in the Upaniads, as they will be in the later bhakti formulations.

The Consolidation of Classical Hinduism

A period of consolidation, sometimes identified as one of "Hindu synthesis," "Brahmanic synthesis," or "orthodox synthesis," takes place between the time of the late Vedic Upaniads (c. 500 bce) and the period of Gupta imperial ascendancy (c. 320467 ce). Discussion of this consolidation, however, is initially complicated by a lack of historiographical categories adequate to the task of integrating the diverse textual, inscriptional, and archaeological data of this long formative period. The attempt to cover as much of this span as possible with the name "epic period," because it coincides with the dates that are usually assigned to the formation and completion of the Hindu epics (particularly the Mahābhārata ), is misleading, because so much of what transpires can hardly be labeled "epic." On the other hand, attempts to define the period in terms of heterogeneous forces operating upon Hinduism from within (assimilation of local deities and cults, geographical spread) and without (heterodox and foreign challenges) either have failed to register or have misrepresented the implications of the apparent fact that the epics were "works in progress" during the whole period. The view one takes of the epics is, in fact, crucial for the interpretation of Hinduism during this period. Here, assuming that the epics already incorporated a bhakti cosmology and theology from an early point in this formative period, this article shall try to place them in relation to other works and formulations that contributed to the consolidation of classical Hinduism.

The overall history can be broken down into four periods characterized by an oscillation from disunity (rival regional kingdoms and tribal confederacies on the Ganges Plain) to unity (Mauryan ascendancy, c. 324184 bce, including the imperial patronage of Buddhism by Aśoka) to disunity (rival foreign kingdoms in Northwest India and regional kingdoms elsewhere) back to unity (Gupta ascendancy, c. 320467 ce). The emerging self-definitions of Hinduism were forged in the context of continued interaction with heterodox religions (Buddhists, Jains, jīvikas) throughout this whole period, and with foreign peoples (Yavanas, or Greeks; Śakas, or Scythians; Pahlavas, or Parthians; and Kūāas, or Kushans) from the third phase on. In this climate the ideal of centralized Hindu rule attained no practical realization until the rise of the Guptas. That this ideal preceded its realization is evident in the rituals of royal paramountcy (Aśvamedha and Rājasūya) that were set out in the Brāhamaas and the Śrautasūtras, and actually performed by post-Mauryan regional Hindu kings.

When one looks to the component facets of the overall consolidation, these four periods must be kept in mind, but with the proviso that datings continue to be problematic: not only datings of texts, but especially of religious movements and processes reflected in them, and in surviving inscriptions. Most scholars ordinarily assume that when a process is referred to in a text or other document, it has gone on for some time.

Śruti and smti

Fundamental to the self-definition of Hinduism during this period of its consolidation is the distinction it makes between two classes of its literature: śruti and smti. Śruti is "what is heard," and refers to the whole corpus of Vedic literature (also called Veda) from the four Vedas to the Upaniads. Smti, "what is remembered" or "tradition," includes all that falls outside this literature. Exactly when this distinction was made is not certain, but it is noteworthy that the six Vedāgas or "limbs of the Veda" (writings on phonetics, metrics, grammar, etymology, astronomy, and ritual) are smti texts that were composed at least in part during the latter half of the Vedic or śruti period. The ritual texts (Kalpasūtras) are subdivided into three categories: Śrautasūtras, Ghyasūtras, and Dharmasūtras. Whereas the first two (discussed above under Brahmanic ritual) pertain to concerns developed in the Vedic period, the Dharmasūtras focus on issues of law (dharma ) that become characteristic of the period now under discussion. Dates given for the composition of these texts run from 600 to 300 bce for the earliest (Gautama Dharmasūtra ) to 400 ce for the more recent works. Both Ghyasūtras and Dharmasūtras were sometimes called Smārtasūtras (i.e., sūtra s based on smti ), so it seems that their authors regarded them as representative of the prolongation of Vedic orthodoxy (and orthopraxy) that the smti category was designed to achieve. As the term smti was extended in its use, however, it also came to cover numerous other texts composed in the post-Upaniadic period.

This śruti/smti distinction thus marks off the earlier literature as a unique corpus that, once the distinction was made, was retrospectively sanctified. By the time of the Manāva Dharmaśāstra, or Laws of Manu (c. 200 bce100 ce; see Manu 1.23), and probably before this, śruti had come to be regarded as "eternal." Its components were thus not works of history. The Vedic i s had "heard" truths that are eternal, and not only in contentthe words of the Vedas are stated to have eternal connection with their meaningsbut also in form. The works thus bear no stamp of the i s' individuality. Such thinking crystallized in the further doctrine that the Vedas (i.e., śruti ) are apaurueya, not of personal authorship (literally, "not by a purua "). They thus have no human imperfection. Further, it was argued that they are even beyond the authorship of a divine "person" (Purua ). Though myths of the period assert that the Vedas spring from Brahmā at the beginning of each creation (as the three Vedas spring from Purua in the Puruasūkta ), the deity is not their author. Merely reborn with him, they are a self-revelation of the impersonal brahman. In contrast to śruti, smti texts were seen as historical or "traditional," passed on by "memory" (smti ), and as works of individual authors (paurueya ), even though mythical authorsboth human and divineoften had to be invented for them.

Smti texts of this period thus proclaim the authority of the Veda in many ways, and nonrejection of the Veda comes to be one of the most important touchstones for defining Hinduism over and against the heterodoxies, which rejected the Veda. In fact, it is quite likely that the doctrines of the eternality and impersonality of the Veda were in part designed to assert the superiority of the Veda over the "authored" and "historical" works of the heterodoxies, whose teachings would thus be on a par with smti rather than śruti. But it is also likely that the apaurueya doctrine is designed to relativize the "personal" god of bhakti. In any case, these doctrines served to place a considerable ideological distance between śruti and smti, and to allow smti authors great latitude in interpreting śruti and extending Hindu teachings into new areas. Smti thus supposedly functioned to clarify the obscurities of the Veda. But the claim that smti texts need only not contradict the Veda left their authors great freedom in pursuing new formulations.

Varāśramadharma ("caste and life-stage law")

The most representative corpus of smti literature, and the most closely tied to the continued unfolding orthodox interests of the Vedic priestly schools, is that concerned with dharma ("law" or "duty"). As a literary corpus, it consists of two kinds of texts: the Dharmasūtras (600/300 bce400 ce), already mentioned in connection with the śruti/smti distinction, and the Dharmaśāstras. The most important and earliest of the latter are the Mānava Dharmaśāstra, or Laws of Manu (c. 200 bce100 ce), and the Yājñavalkya Smti (c. 100300 ce). But other Dharmaśāstras were composed late into the first millennium, to be followed by important commentaries on all such texts. The main focus of these two classes of texts is fundamentally identical: the articulation of norms for all forms of social interaction, thus including but going far beyond the earlier Sūtras' concern for ritual. Four differences, however, are noteworthy: (1) Whereas the Dharmasūtras are in prose, the Dharmaśāstras are in the same poetic meter as the epics, Manu in particular having much material in common with the Mahābhārata. (2) Whereas the Sūtras are still linked with the Vedic schools, the Śāstras are not, showing that study and teaching of dharma had come to be an independent discipline of its own. (3) The Śāstra legislation is more extended and comprehensive. (4) The Śāstras are more integrated into a mythic and cosmological vision akin to that in bhakti texts, but usually ignoring bhakti as such, with references to duties appropriate to different yuga s (ages), and the identification of north central India as the "middle region" (madhyadeśa ) where the dharma is (and is to be kept) the purest.

The theory of varāśramadharma, the law of castes and life stages, was worked out in these texts as a model for the whole of Hindu society. There is little doubt that it was stimulated by the alternate lay/monastic social models of the heterodoxies, and no doubt that it was spurred on by the incuions of barbarian peoplesfrequently named in these texts as mleccha s (those who "jabber")into the Northwest. The model involves the working out of the correlations between two ideals: first, that society conform to four hierarchical castes, and second, that a person should pass through four life stages (āśrama s): student (brahmacārin ), householder (ghasthin ), forest dweller (vānaprasthin ), and renunciant (sanyāsin ). The first ideal is rooted in the Puruasūkta. The second presupposes the śruti corpus, because the four life stages are correlated with the four classes of śruti texts. Thus the student learns one of the Vedas, the householder performs domestic and optimally also śrauta rituals of the Brāhamaas, the forest dweller follows the teachings of the rayakas, and the sanyāsin follows a path of renunciation toward the Upaniadic goal of moka. But although all the life stages are either mentioned (as are the first two) or implied in the śruti corpus, the theory that they should govern the ideal course of individual life is new to the Dharmasūtras. Together, the vara and āśrama ideals take on tremendous complexity, because a person's duties vary according to caste and stage of life, not to mention other factors like sex, family, region, and the quality of the times. Also, whereas a person's development through one life ideally is regulated by the āśrama ideal, the passage through many reincarnations would involve birth into different castes, the caste of one's birth being the result of previous karman. A further implication is that the life stages can be properly pursued only by male members of the three twice-born vara s, as they alone can undergo the Upanayana ritual that begins the student stage and allows the performance of the rites pertinent to succeeding stages.

Each of these formulations has peisted more on the ideal plane than the real. In the case of the four āśrama s, most people never went beyond the householder stage, which the Sūtras and Śāstras actually exalt as the most important of the four, because it is the support of the other three and, in more general terms, the mainstay of the society. The forest-dweller stage may soon have become more legendary than real: In epic stories it was projected onto the Vedic i s. The main tension, however, that peists in orthodox Hinduism is that between the householder and the renunciant, the challenge being for anyone to integrate into one lifetime these two ideals, which the heterodoxies set out for separate lay and monastic communities.

As to the four vara s, the ideal represents society as working to the reciprocal advantage of all the castes, each one having duties necessary to the proper functioning of the whole and the perpetuation of the hierarchical principle that defines the whole. Thus Brāhamaa s are at the top, distinguished by three duties that they share with no other caste: teaching the Veda, assisting in sacrifice, and accepting gifts. They are said to have no king but Soma, god of the sacrifice. In actual fact the traditional śrauta sacrifice counted for less and less in the brāhamaa householder life, and increasing attention was given to the maintenance of brāhamaa purity for the purpose of domestic and eventually temple rituals that, in effect, universalized sacrifice as the brāhamaa 's dharma, but a sacrifice that required only the minimum of impure violence. This quest for purity was reinforced by brāhamaa s' adoption into their householder life of aspects of the sanyāsa ideal of renunciation. This was focused especially on increasing espousal of the doctrine of ahisā (nonviolence, or, more literally, "not desiring to kill") and was applied practically to vegetarianism, which becomes during this period the brāhamaa norm. Brāhamaa s thus retain higher rank than katriya s, even though the latter wield temporal power (katra ) and have the specific and potentially impure duties of bearing weapons and protecting and punishing with the royal staff (daa ). The subordination of king to brāhamaa involves a subordination of power to hierarchy that is duplicated in contemporary rural and regional terms in the practice of ranking brāhamaa s above locally dominant castes whose power lies in their landed wealth and numbers. Vaiśya s have the duties of stock breeding, agriculture, and commerce (including money lending). Certain duties then distinguished the three twice-born castes as a group from the śūdra s. All three upper vara s thus study the Veda, perform sacrifices, and make gifts, whereas śūdra s are permitted only lesser sacrifices (pākayajña s) and simplified domestic rituals that do not require Vedic recitation.

Actual conditions, however, were (and still are) much more complex. The four-vara model provided the authors of the dharma texts with Vedic "categories" within which to assign a basically unlimited variety of heterogeneous social entities including indigenous tribes, barbarian invaders, artisan communities and guilds (śrei s), and specialists in various services. Susceptible to further refinement in ranking and regional nomenclature, all such groups were called jāti s, a term meaning "birth" and in functional terms the proper word to be translated "caste." Thus, although they are frequently called subcastes, the jāti s are the castes proper that the law books classified into the "categories" of vara.

To account for this proliferation of jāti s, the authors asserted that they arose from cross-breeding of the vara s. Two possibilities were thus presented: anuloma ("with the grain") unions, in which the husband's vara was the same as his wife's or higher (in anthropological terms, hypergamous, in which women are "married up"), and pratiloma ("against the grain") unions, in which the wife's vara would be higher than the husband's (hypogamous, in which women are "married down"). Endogamous marriage (marriage within one's own vara ) set the highest standard and was according to some authorities the only true marriage. But of the other two, whereas anuloma marriages were permitted, pratiloma unions brought disgrace. Thus the jāti s supposedly born from anuloma unions were less disgraced than those born from pratiloma unions. Significantly, two of the most problematic jāti s were said to have been born from the most debased pratiloma connections: the Yavanas (Greeks) from śūdra males and katriya females (similar origins were ascribed to other "barbarians") and the caāla s (lowest of the low, mentioned already in the Upaniads, and early Buddhist literature, as a "fifth caste" of untouchables) from the polluting contact of śūdra males and brāhamaa females. It should be noted that a major implication of the prohibition of pratiloma marriage is the limitation for brāhamaa women to marriages with only brāhamaa men. This established at the highest rank an association of caste purity with caste endogamy (and the purity of a caste's women) and thus initiated an endogamous standard that was adopted by all castesnot just vara s but jāti sby the end of the first millennium.

This accounting of the emergence of jāti s was integrated with further explanations of how society had departed from its ideal. One is that "mixing of caste"the great abomination of the dharma texts and also of the Bhagavad-gītā increases with the decline of dharma from yuga to yuga, and is especially pernicious in this Kali age. Another is the doctrine of āpad dharma, "duties for times of distress" such as permit inversion of caste roles when life is threatened. A third doctrine developed in the Dharmaśāstras identifies certain duties (kalivarjya s) as once allowed but now prohibited in the kaliyuga because people are no longer capable of performing them purely. Through all this, however, the ideal peists as one that embraces a whole society despite variations over time and space.

The four puruārthas (goals of humankind)

The theory that the integrated life involves the pursuit of four goals (artha s) is first presented in the Dharmaśāstras and the epics, in the latter cases through repeated narrative illustrations. The development of distinctive technical interpretations of each artha, or facets thereof, can also be followed during the period in separate manuals: the Arthaśāstra, a manual on statecraft attributed to Candragupta Maurya's minister Kauilya but probably dating from several centuries later, on artha (in the sense now of "material pursuits"); the Kāmasūtras, most notably that of Vātsyāyana (c. 400 ce), on kāma ("love, desire"); the already discussed Dharmasūtras and Dharmaśāstras on dharma; and the Sūtras of the "philosophical schools" (darśana s) insofar as they are concerned with the fourth goal, moka. Early sources often refer to the first three goals as the trivarga, the "three categories," but this need not imply that the fourth goal is added later. The Dharmaśāstra and epic texts that mention the trivarga are focused on the concerns of the householderand, in the epics, particularly of the royal householderthese being the context for the pursuit of the trivarga. The fourth goal, moka, is to be pursued throughout lifeindeed, throughout all livesbut is especially the goal of those who have entered the fourth life stage of the sanyāsin. The trivarga-moka opposition thus replicates the householder-renunciant opposition. But the overall purpose of the puruārtha formulation is integrative and complementary to the varāśramadharma theory. From the angle of the householder, it is dharma that integrates the trivarga as a basis for moka. But from the angle of the sanyāsin, it is kāma that lies at the root of the trivarga, representing attachment in all forms, even to dharma. Paths to liberation will thus focus on detachment from desire, or its transformation into love of God.

Philosophical "viewpoints" (darśanas) and paths to salvation

As an expression of Hinduism's increasing concern to systematize its teachings, the fourth goal of life (moka ) was made the subject of efforts to develop distinctly Hindu philosophical "viewpoints" (darśana s, from the root dś, "see") on the nature of reality and to recommend paths to its apprehension and the release from bondage to karman. Six Hindu darśana s were defined, and during the period in question each produced fundamental textsin most cases sūtra sthat served as the bases for later commentaries.

In terms of mainstream developments within Hinduism, only two schools have ongoing continuity into the present: the Mīmāsā and the Vedānta. And of these, only the latter has unfolded in important ways in the postsynthesis period. Nonetheless, all six have made important contributions to later Hinduism. It must thus suffice to discuss them all briefly at this point in terms of their basic features and major impact, and reserve fuller discussion of the Vedānta alone for the period of its later unfolding.

Of the six schools, twoMīmāsā and Vedāntaare rooted primarily in the Vedic śruti tradition and are thus sometimes called smārta schools in the sense that they develop smārta orthodox currents of thought that are based, like smti, directly on śruti. The other fourNyāya, Vaiśeika, Sākhya, and Yogaclaim loyalty to the Veda, yet are quite independent of it, their focus instead being on rational or causal explanation. They are thus sometimes called haituka schools (from hetu, "cause, reason").

Of the smārta schools, the Mīmāsā is most concerned with ritual traditions rooted in the Vedas and the Brāhamaas, whereas the Vedānta is focused on the Upaniads. It is notable that both sustain Vedic orientations that reject (Mīmāsā) or subordinate (Vedānta) bhakti until the Vedānta is devotionalized in its post-Śakara forms. Beginning with Jaimini's Mīmāsā Sūtra (c. 300100 bce), Mīmāsā ("reflection, interpretation") provides exegesis of Vedic injunctive speech, in particular as it concerns the relationship between intentions and rewards of sacrifice. Great refinement is brought to bear on issues relating to the authority and eternalness of the Veda and the relationship between its sounds, words, and meanings. Vedic injunctions are taken literally, the many Vedic gods are seen as real although superfluous to salvation (there is an anti-bhakti stance here), and it is maintained that the proper use of injunctions is alone enough to secure the attainment of heaven (not a higher release, or moka, as propounded by all the other systems, including bhakti ). Mīmāsā persists in two subschools, but only in small numbers among brahman ritualists.

As to the Vedānta ("end of the Veda," a term also used for the Upaniads), the foundational work is Bādarāyaa's Vedānta Sūtra, or Brahma Sūtra (c. 300100 bce), an exegesis of various Upaniadic passages in aphoristic style easily susceptible to divergent interpretations. These it received in the hands of later Vedantic thinkers.

The haituka schools are notable for their development, for the first time within Hinduism, of what may be called maps and paths: that is, maps of the constituent features of the cosmos, and paths to deliverance from bondage. Emerging within Hindusim at this period, and particularly in the schools least affiliated with the Vedic tradition, such concerns no doubt represent an effort to counter the proliferation of maps and paths set forth by the heterodoxies (not only Buddhism and Jainism, but the jīvikas). They allow for a somewhat more open recognition of the deity of bhakti (Sākhya excepted) than do the smārta schools, though none of the haituka schools makes it truly central.

Nyāya and Vaiśeika, systems first propounded in Gautama's Nyāya Sūtra (c. 200 bce150 ce) and Kaāda's Vaiśeika Sūtra (c. 200 bce100 ce), were quickly recognized as a hyphenated pair: Nyāya-Vaiśeika. Nyāya ("rule, logic, analysis"), emphasizing logic and methods of argumentation as means to liberation, was viewed as complementary to Vaiśeika ("school of distinct characteristics"), which advanced a theory of atomism and posited seven categories to explain such things as atomic aggregation and dualistic distinction between soul and matter. At least by about the fifth century, when the two schools had conjoined, Nyāya logic and Vaiśeika cosmology served to provide influential arguments from design for the existence of God as the efficient cause of the creation and destruction of the universe and liberator of the soul from karman.

Far more influential, however, were the pair Sākhya ("enumeration") and Yoga. The foundational texts of these schools may be later than those of the others, but they are clearly distillations of long-continuing traditions, datable at least to the middle Upaniads, that had already undergone considerable systematization. Thus Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra is from either about 200 bce or 300500 ce, depending on whether or not one identifies the author with the grammarian who lived at the earlier date. And Īśvaraka's Sākhyakārikās probably date from the fourth century ce. Even though Sākhya's "atheism" and its soteriology of the isolation (kaivalya) of the soul (purua) from matter (prakti) have been modified or rejected in other forms of Hinduism (both doctrines may link Sākhya with Jainism), Sākhya's cosmology and basic terminology have become definitive for Hinduism at many levels: not only in the Vedānta, but in bhakti and Tantric formulations as well. In fact, given the preclassical forms of theistic Sākhya founded in the Upaniads and the Mahābhārata and their use in bhakti cosmologies, it may well be that the atheism of the classical Sākhya results from a rejection of bhakti elements from a fundamentally theistic system. Sākhya thus posits purua without a transcendent, divine Purua, and its prakti is also abstract and impersonal.

In any case, a number of Sākhya concepts became basic to the Hindu vocabulary, only to be integrated and reinterpreted from different theological and soteriological perspectives by other schools. These include the concepts of the evolution and devolution of prakti, the sexual polarity of purua as male and prakti as female, the enumeration of twenty-three substances that evolve from and devolve back into the prakti "matrix," the concept of matter as a continuum from subtle psychomental "substances" to gross physical ones (in particular the five elements), and the notion of the three "strands" or "qualities" called gua s (sattva, goodness, lucidity; rajas, dynamism; tamas, entropy), which are "braided" together through all matter from the subtle to the gross.

Meanwhile, whereas Sākhya provides the map to be "known," Yoga defines the path by which purua can extricate itself from prakti. The "eight limbs" of Yoga (an answer to the Eightfold Path of Buddhism?) represent the most important Hindu formulation of a step-by-step (though also cumulative) path to liberation. The first two "limbs" involve forms of restraint (yama ) and observance (niyama ). The next three involve integration of the body and senses: posture (āsana ), breath control (prāāyama ), and withdrawal of the senses from the dominance of sense objects (pratyāhāra ). The last three achieve the integration of the mind or the "cessation of the mental turmoil" that is rooted in the effects of karman: "holding" (dhāraā ) to a meditative support, meditative fluency (dhyāna ), and integrative concentration (samādhī ) through which the freedom of purua can be experienced.

The classical Yoga of Patañjali, known as rājayoga ("royal yoga"), diverges from the Sākhya in acknowledging the existence of God (Īśvara). But Īśvara is a focus of meditation, not an agent in the process of liberation. The use of the term rājayoga, however, suggests that by Patañjali's time the term yoga had already been used to describe other disciplines or paths, resulting in a situation where the terms yoga ("yoke") and mārga ("path") had become interchangeable. One will thus find rājayoga mentioned later along with the more generalized "yogas," or "paths," that become definitive for Hinduism through their exposition in the Bhagavadgītā (c. 200 bce): the paths (or yogas) of karman ("action"), jñāna ("knowledge"), and bhakti ("devotion").

Classical bhakti Hinduism

The consolidation of Hinduism takes place under the sign of bhakti. And though Mīmāsā ritualism and Vedantic and other "knowledge" trends continue to affiliate with an "orthodox" strain that resists this synthesis, or attempts to improve upon it, classical bhakti emerges as constitutive henceforth of mainstream Hinduism, including forms of devotional sectarianism.

Intimations of bhakti developments are registered as early as the late Vedic Upaniads, and in inscriptions and other records of syncretistic worship of Hindu deities (Viu and Śiva) alongside foreign and heterodox figures in the early centuries of the common era. However, the heterogeneity and scattered nature of the nontextual information available on the emergence of bhakti during this period have allowed for conflicting interpretations of the salient features of the process. But rather than reweave a fragile developmental web from supposedly separate sectarian and popular strands, it is better to look at the texts themselves to see what they attempted and achieved. It should be noted, however, that to the best of existing knowledge it was achieved relatively early in the period of consolidation, for the Bhagavadgītā the text that seals the achievementseems to be from no later than the first or second century bce (it is cited by Bārdarāyaa in the Vedānta Sūtra ), and possibly earlier. Of course, continued unfolding occurred after that.

The achievement itself is a universal Hinduism that, following Biardeau's discussion of bhakti in "Études de mythologie hindoue" (1976), one may designate as smārta. It inherits from the Brahmanic sacrificial tradition a conception wherein Viu and Śiva are recognized as complementary in their functions but ontologically identical. The fundamental texts of this devotional smārta vision are the two epicsthe Mahābhārata (c. 500 bce400 ce) and the Rāmāyaa (c. 400200 bce)and the Harivaśa (c. 300400 ce?). These works integrate much Puranic mythic and cosmological material, which later is spun out at greater length in the classical Purāas ("ancient lore"), of which there are said to be eighteen major and eighteen minor texts. The epics and Purāas are thus necessarily discussed together. But it should be recognized that whereas the smārta vision of the epics and the Harivaśa is fundamentally integrative and universal in intent, the Purāas are frequently dominated by regional and particularistic interests, including in some cases the strong advocacy of the worship of one deity (Śiva, Viu, or the Goddess) over all others. It is thus tempting to think of the period of Purāa composition (c. 4001200 ce?) as one that extends the integrative vision of the fundamental texts but develops it in varied directions. Still, as it is not clear that instances of Puranic theological favoritism are motivated by distinct sects, it is misleading to speak of "sectarian" Purāas.

Taken together, then, the Harivaśa and the Mahābhārata (which includes the Bhagavadgītā ) present the full biography of Ka, and the Rāmāyaa that of Rāma. The Harivaśa (Genealogy of Harii. e., Ka), the more recent of the texts concerning Ka, presents the stories of his birth and youth, in which he and his brother Balarāma take on the "disguise" (vea ) of cowherds. Thus they engage in divine "sport" (līlā ) with the cowherd women (gopī s), until finally they are drawn away to avenge themselves against their demonic uncle Kasa, who had caused their exile. The Mahābhārata (Story of the Great Bhārata Dynasty) focuses on Ka's assistance to the five Pāava brothers in their conflicts with their cousins, the hundred Kauravas, over the "central kingdom" of the lunar dynasty (the Bhārata dynasty) at Hāstinapura and Indraprastha near modern Delhi. Both texts incorporate telling allusions to the other "cycle," and because both stories must have circulated orally together before reaching their present literary forms, any notions of their separate origins are purely conjectural. The Rāmāyaa (Exploits of Rāma) tells the story of Rāma, scion of the solar dynasty and embodiment of dharma, who must rescue his wife Śita from the demon (rākasa ) Rāvaa. Though each of these texts has its special flavor and distinctive background, they become in their completed forms effectively a complementary triad. Indeed, in the "conservative" South, popular performances of Hindu mythology in dramas and temple recitations are still dominated by three corresponding specializations: Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaa, and Bhāgavata Purāa, the latter (c. 800900 ce?) enriching the devotional themes of the Harivaśa in its tenth and eleventh books and in effect replacing it as representing the early life of Ka.

The smārta universe in these texts is structured around Viu, and more particularly around his two heroic incarnations, Rāma and Ka. Thus other deities are frequently represented as subordinated to or subsumed by these figures. But there is also recognition of Viu's complementarity with Śiva: some passages that stress mutual acknowledgment of their ontological unity, others that work out the interplay between them through stories about heroic characters who incarnate them, and scenes in which Viu's incarnations do homage to Śiva. It should be clear that efforts to find "tendencies toward monotheism" in such texts involve the reduction of a very complex theology to distinctly Western terms. The same applies to those Purāas that are structured around Śiva or the Goddess rather than Viu but are still framed within the same cosmology and the same principles of theological complementarity and subordination.

This smārta vision is not, however, limited to one theological conundrum, for it extends to encompass Śiva and Viu's interaction with other major figures: the god Brahmā, masculine form of the impersonal Absolute (brahman ), now subordinated to the higher "personal" deities; the Goddess in her many forms; Indra and other deva s (now "demigods"); their still perennial foes, the demons (asura s); and of course humans, animals, and so on. It also presents an overarching bhakti cosmology in which the yogic supreme divinity (Śiva or Viu) encompasses the religious values of sanyāsa, tapas, knowledge, and sacrifice, and introduces the view that taken by themselves, without bhakti, these values may be incomplete or even extreme "paths." Further, it incorporates the smārta social theory of the Dharmasūtras and the Dharmaśāstras, and works out its implications within the cosmology. The details of this smārta vision are best discussed, however, in relation to the Hindu chronometric theory that is presumed and first articulated in these texts and then further developed in the Purāas.

Time is structured according to three main rhythms, hierarchically defined, the longer encompassing the lesser. Most down-to-earth is the series of four yuga s named after four dice throws, which define a theory of the "decline of the dharma ": first a ktayuga ("perfect age"), then a tretāyuga and a dvāparayuga, and finally a degenerate kaliyuga ("age of discord"). A ktayuga lasts 4,000 years, a tretāyuga 3,000, a dvāparayuga 2,000, and a kaliyuga 1,000, each supplemented by a dawn and twilight of one-tenth its total. A full four-yuga cycle thus lasts 12,000 years and is called a mahāyuga ("great yuga "). These are not human years, however, but divine years, which are 360 times as long as human years. Thus a mahāyuga equals 360 times 12,000, or 4,320,000 human years, and a kaliyuga is one-tenth of that total. A thousand mahāyuga s (4,320 million human years) is a kalpa, the second major time unit, which is also called a "day of Brahmā." Brahmā's days are followed by nights of equal duration. Brahmā lives a hundred years of 360 such days and nights, or 311,040 billion human years, all of which are sometimes said to pass in a wink of the eye of Viu. The period of a life of Brahmā, called a mahākalpa, is the third major temporal rhythm.

Working backward now, one may observe the modus operandi of Viu and Śiva (and of course others) as it is envisioned in the smārta Hinduism of the texts.

First, at the highest level, Viu and Śiva are great yogins, interacting with the rhythms of the universe in terms of their own oscillations between activity and yogic concentration (samādhi ). At the mahāpralaya ("great dissolution"), the deity (usually Viu in these early texts, but just as often Śiva or the Goddess in later Puranic ones) oversees the dissolution of the universe into the primal prakti in accord with the cosmological theory of Sākhya-Yoga. This ends the life of Brahmā, but it is also to be noted that it marks the restoration to its primordial unity of prakti, whichas feminineis regarded mythologically as the ultimate form of the Goddess. From a Śaiva standpoint, the male (the deity as Purua) and the female (the Goddess as Prakti) are reunited at the great dissolution of the universe, a theme that is depicted in representations of the deity as Ardhānarīśvara, "the Lord who is half female." Their union is nonprocreative and represents the unitive experience of the bliss of brahman. Creation then occurs when the deity (whether Śiva or Viu) emerges from this samādhi and instigates the renewed active unfolding of prakti.

The coincidence of the death of Brahmā with not only the dissolution of the universe but the reintegration of the Goddess and her reunion with Śiva is highly significant. The Goddess is an eternal being, worthy of worship becauselike Viu and Śivashe outlasts the universe and can bestow moka. Brahmā, ultimately mortal and bound to temporality, is worshiped not for moka but ratherand mostly by demonsfor earthly power and lordship. Stories that portray Śiva's severing of Brahmā's fifth head and refer to the "head of Brahmā" (brahmaśiras ) as the weapon of doomsday, are perhaps mythic echoes of this ultimate cosmological situation wherein the coming together of Purua and Prakti coincide with his death.

The primary creation has as its result the constitution of a "cosmic egg," the brahmāa ("egg of Brahmā"). Further creation, and periodic re-creations, will be carried out by Brahmā, the personalized form of the Absolute (brahman ). Insofar as the brahman is personalized and oriented toward the world, it is thus subordinated to the yogin Purua, the ultimate as defined through bhakti. Moreover, the activity of Brahmāheir in his cosmogenic role of the earlier Prajāpatiis conceived in terms of sacrificial themes that are further encompassed by bhakti.

It is at this level that the three male gods cooperate as the trimūrti, the "three forms" of the Absolute: Brahmā the creator, Śiva the destroyer, and Viu the preserver. Within the brahmāa, Brahmā thus creates the Vedic triple world of earth, atmosphere, and heaven (or alternatively heaven, earth, and underworld). These three samsaric worlds are surrounded by four ulterior worlds, still within the brahmāa, for beings who achieve release from saśara but still must await their ultimate liberation. These ulterior worlds are not henceforth created or destroyed in the occasional creations or destructions. As to the triple world, Brahmā creates it by becoming the sacrificial boar (yajñavarāha ) who retrieves the Vedas and the earth from the cosmic ocean. The destruction of the triple world is achieved by Śiva. As the "fire of the end of time," he reduces it to ashes, thus effecting a cosmic funerary sacrifice. And Viu, the god whom the Brāhamaas identify as "the sacrifice," maintains the triple world while it is sustained by sacrifices, and also preserves what is left of it after the dissolution when he lies on the serpent Śea ("remainder") whose name indicates that he is formed of the remnant of the previous cosmos, or more exactly of the "remainder" of the cosmic sacrifice. This form of Viu, sleeping on Śea, is called Nārāyaa, a name that the Śatapatha Brāhamaa already connects with the Vedic Purua, the "male" source of all beings. When Viu-Nārāyaa awakens, Brahmāwho in some fashion awakens with himre-creates the universe. Through all these myths the earth is a form of the Goddess, indeed the most concretized form she takes as a result of the evolution of prakti (earth being the last of the evolutes emitted and the first to dissolve).

Thus the greater universe whose rhythms are integrated within the divine yoga of Viu and Śiva encompasses an egg of Brahmā, which encloses a triple world whose rhythms form a round sustained by the divine sacrificial acts of the trimūrti. This pattern is transposed onto the third temporal rhythm, that of the yuga s. Thus the characteristic religious virtues of the yuga s are as follows: dhyāna ("meditation") or tapas ("asceticism") in the ktayuga ; jñāna ("knowledge") in the tretāyuga ; yajña ("sacrifice") in the dvāparayuga ; and dāna ("the gift") in the kaliyuga. Thus the two śruti -based ideals of knowledge and sacrifice are enclosed within a frame-work that begins with yogic meditation as a divine ktayuga activity and ends in the kaliyuga with the devotional gift. Bhakti thus encompasses knowledge and sacrifice.

The distinctive feature of the rhythm of the yuga cycle is that it is calibrated by the rise and fall of dharma in the triple world. Beings who have achieved release from the triple world oscillate between the four higher worlds, enduring periodic destructions of the triple world and awaiting the great dissolution of the universe that will dissolve the egg of Brahmā (coincident with his death) and result in a vast collective ultimate liberation of reabsorption into the supreme Purua. Needless to say, this is to occur only after an almost incalculable wait. But beings who have attained these ulterior worlds are no more affected by dharma than the yogic deity beyond them. The maintenance of dharma within the triple world thus engages the deities in their third level of activity, that of "descent." In classical terms this is the theory of the avatāra. Though the term is not used in the epics or the Harivaśa in its later, specialized sense, these texts are suffused by the concept and its bhakti implications, which include narrative situations wherein the divinity looks to all concerned, and sometimes even to himself, as a mere human. The programmatic statement of the avatāra concept (without mention of the term itself) is thus stated by Ka in the Bhagavadgītā: "For whenever the Law [dharma ] languishes, Bhārata, and lawlessness flourishes I create myself. I take on existence from eon to eon [yuga to yuga ], for the rescue of the good and the destruction of evil, in order to establish the Law" (4.78; van Buitenen, trans.).

The classical theory of the ten avatāra smost of whom are mentioned in the epics and the Harivaśa, but not in a single listis worked out in relation to Viu. One thus has the following "descents" of Viu in order of appearance: Fish (Matsya), Tortoise (Kūrma), Boar (Varāha), Man-Lion (Narasiha), Dwarf (Vāmana), Rāma with the Ax (Paraśurāma), Rāma of the Rāmāyaa, Ka, the Buddha, and the future avatāra Kalki, who will rid the earth of barbarian kings and reestablish the dharma at the end of the kaliyuga. There are various attempts to correlate appearances of the avatāra s with distinct yuga s and even kalpa s, but the one feature that is consistently mentioned in these formative texts is that Ka appeared at the interval between the last dvaparayuga and kaliyuga, and thus at the beginning of the present age. It is likely that the theory was first formulated around Ka and Rāma along with the Dwarf (the only form to be associated with Viu in the śruti literature) and the apocalyptic Kalki. But in actuality, the avatāra theory is more complex. In the epics and in living Hinduism, Viu does not descend alone. In the literature, his incarnations take place alongside those of other deities, including most centrally Vāyu, Indra, Sūrya, the Goddess, andat least in the Mahābhārata Śiva. And in localized temple mythologies throughout India, one hears of avatāra s of Śiva and the Goddess as well as of Viu. In devotional terms, the avatāra is thus a form taken on earth (or, better, in the three worlds) by any one of the three deities found at the ultimate level of cosmic absorption, where all that remains beside the liberated beings who join them are the eternal yogic deities Viu and Śiva and the primal Goddess.

The classical concept of the avatāra, structured around Viu, remains, however, the chief Hindu use of the term. Its formulation in the epics and the Harivaśa is thus constitutive for succeeding eras of Hinduism, in which it will only be enriched but not essentially changed by later bhakti theologies. Looking at these texts comprehensively, then, with the Gitā as the main guide, one can outline its main contours. Against the background of the vast, all-embracing bhakti cosmology, the involvement of the yogic divinity on earth takes place completely freely, as "sport" or "play" (līlā ). Still, the god takes birth to uphold the dharma and to keep the earth from being unseasonably inundated in the waters of dissolution under the weight of adharmic kings. The avatāra thus intercedes to uphold the system of varāśramadharma and to promote the proper pursuit of the four puruārtha s. Because he appears in times of crisis, a central concern in the texts is with the resolution of the conflicts between ideals: renunciation versus householdership, brāhamaa versus katriya, killing versus "not desiring to kill" (ahisā ), dharma versus moka, dharma versus kāma and artha, and conflicts between different dharma s (duties) such as royal duty and filial duty. But though the texts focus primarily on the two upper castes, the full society is represented by singular depictions of figures who evoke the lowest castes and tribal groups. It is also filled in with figures of real and reputed mixed caste.

Confusion of caste is a particularly prominent issue in the Mahābhārata, where it is raised by Ka in the Gitā as the worst of ills. Most significantly, the Mahābhārata and the Harivaśa identify a particularly pernicious form of caste confusion among the barbarian (mleccha ) peoples of the Northwest (the Punjab), mentioning Yavanas, Śakas, and Pahlavas among others as enemies of the dharma and causes for such "mixing." The fact that events of the period from 300 bce to 300 ce are projected into the distant past indicates that part of the bhakti synthesis was the articulation of a mythical theory of historical events. One may thus look at these smti texts as posing a model for the revival of Hinduism in accord with "eternal" Vedic models, with the descent of the avatāra and indeed of much of the Vedic pantheon along with himguaranteeing the periodic adjustment of the sociocosmic world to these eternal norms. Furthermore, the tracing of all Hindu dynastic lines back to the defunct if not mythical "lunar" and "solar" dynasties provided the model for the spatial extension of this ideal beyond the central lands of Aryavata where the dharma, according to both Manu and the Mahābhārata, was the purest.

But the focus of the avatāra is not solely on the renovation of the dharma. He also brings to the triple world the divine grace that makes possible the presence, imagery, and teachings that confer moka. The epics and the Harivaśa are full of bhakti tableaux: moments that crystallize the realization by one character or another of the liberating vision (darśana ) of the divine. Most central, however, is the Bhagavadgītā, which is both a darśana and a teaching.

The Bhagavadgītā (Song of the Lord) takes place as a dialogue between Ka and Arjuna just before the outbreak of the Mahābhārata war. Although he is the third oldest of the five Pāavas, Arjuna is their greatest warrior, and Ka's task in the Gitā is to persuade him to overcome his reluctance to fight in the battle. Fundamental to the argument is Arjuna's requirement to fulfill his dharma as a katriya rather than adopt the idealunsuitable for him in his present life stageof the renouncer. Thus the Gitā champions the theory of varāśramadharma as upholding the sociocosmic order.

Ka presents his teaching to Arjuna by revealing a sequence of "royal" and "divine" mysteries that culminate in his granting a vision of his "All-Form" (Viśvarūpa-darśana ) as God, creator and destroyer of the universe. In this grand cosmic perspective, Arjuna is told that he will be but the "mere instrument" of the deaths of his foes, their destruction having now come to ripeness through Viu's own agency in his form as cosmic time, or kāla (Bhagavadgītā 11.3233). Arjuna thus recognizes this omniform deity as Viu in this climactic scene.

On the way to this revelation, however, Ka acknowledges the three paths (yoga s) to salvation: action, knowledge, and devotion. These are presented as instructions by which Arjuna can gain the resolute clarity of insight (buddhi ) and yogic discipline by which to recognize the distinctions between soul and body, action and inaction, and thus perform actionsincluding killingthat are unaffected by desire. Ritual action and knowledge are set forth as legitimate and mutually reinforcing paths, but incomplete unless integrated within and subordinated to bhakti. Ka thus presents himself as the ultimate karmayogin, acting to benefit the worlds out of no personal desire. He thus bids his devotees (bhakta s) to surrender all actions to him as in a sacrifice, but a sacrifice (karman ) no longer defined in Vedic-Mīmāsā terms as a means to fulfill some personal desire. Ka also presents himself as the object of all religious knowledge, the highest Purua (uttamapurua ) and supreme self (paramātman ), beyond the perishable and the imperishable, yet pervading and supporting all worlds (15.1617).

One other facet of the bhakti synthesis to which the Gitā alludes is the transition from traditional Vedic sacrifice (yajña ) to new forms of offering to the deity (pūjā, literally, "honoring"). This corresponds to the theory that the "gift" is the particularly appropriate religious practice for the kaliyuga. Thus Ka says: "If one disciplined soul proffers to me with love [bhakti ] a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I accept this offering of love from him. Whatever you do, or eat, or offer, or give, or mortify, make it an offering to me, and I shall undo the bonds of karman " (9.2627; van Buitenen, trans.). The passage probably refers to domestic worship of the "deity of one's choice" (iadevata ). But it is also likely to allude to temple worship, for it is known from inscriptions and literary sources from the third to first century bce that sanctuaries existed for Vāsudeva and Keśava (presumably as names for Ka and Viu), as well as for other deities. By the beginning of the Gupta period, around 320 ce, temple building was in full swing, with inscriptions showing construction of temples for Viu, Śiva, and the Goddess. Temples were built at sites within cities, as well as at remote holy places, and sanctuaries at both such locations became objectives along pilgrimage routes that are first mentioned in the Mahābhārata. From very early if not from the beginning of such temple worship, the deities were represented by symbols and/or iconic images.

Certain aspects of temple construction and worship draw inspiration from the Vedic sacrifice. The plan of the edifice is designed on the ground as the Vastu-puruamaala, a geometric figure of the "Purua of the Site" (vāstu ), from whom the universe takes form. The donor, ideally a king, is the yajamāna. The sanctum sanctorum, called the garbhagha ("womb house"), continues the symbolism of the Vedic dīkā hut: Here again the yajamāna becomes an embryo so as to achieve a new birth, now taking into his own being the higher self of the deity that he installs there in the form of an image. The temple as a whole is thus a Vedic altar comprising the triple world, but also an expanded image of the cosmos through which the deity manifests himself from within, radiating energy to the outer walls where his (or her) activities and interactions with the world are represented.

But the use of the temple for ordinary daily worship involves radically non-Vedic objectives. The Vedic sacrifice is a means for gods and humansbasically equalsto fulfill reciprocal desires. Pūjā rites are means for God and humankind to interact on a level beyond desire: for humans to give without expectation of reward, or, more exactly, to get back nothing tangible other than what they have offered but with the paradoxical conviction that the deity "shares" (from the root meaning of bhakti ) what is given and returns it as an embodiment of his or her grace (prasāda ). God is thus fully superior, served as a royal guest with rites of hospitality. Basically four moments are involved: offerings, taking sight (darśana ) of the deity, receiving this prasāda, and leave-taking by circumambulation of the garbhagha and the image within. The offerings are the pūjā proper and comprise a great variety of devotional acts designed to please the deity, some of which may be worked into a daily round by the temple priests, who offer on behalf of others.

Finally, one last element of the consolidation of Hinduism achieved by early Gupta times is the emergence of the Goddess as a figure whose worship is recognized alongside that of Viu and Śiva and is performed with the same basic rites. Indeed, it is possible that aspects of pūjā ceremonialism are derived from non-Vedic śūdra and village rites in which female deities no doubt figured highly, as they do in such cults today. The two epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaa, reflect themes associated with the Goddess in the portrayals of their chief heroines, Draupadī and Śita, but the Harivaśa is probably the first text to acknowledge the Goddess as such. There she takes birth as Ka and Balarāma's "sister" (actually she and Ka exchange mothers). Some of her future demon enemies are mentioned, and there is also reference to her having numerous places of worship and a cult that apparently included animal sacrifice. Thus the Goddess is integrated even within the texts of the early smārta Hinduism that are centered on Viu. But the text that registers her full emergence is the Devimāhātmyam (Glorification of the Goddess). Probably from about 400600 ce, it was included in the Mārkaeya Purāa. Here the Goddess is recognized under all her major aspects, as primal matter embodied in the universe yet beyond it, incarnate in many forms, cause of the joys and miseries of this world and of liberation from it, the power (śakti ) enabling the roles of the trimūrti, yet higher than the gods and their last resort in the face of certain demons, most notably the buffalo demon Mashāsura, her most dedicated and persistent foe through cults and myths both ancient and current. This emergence of the Goddess is registered more fully in the development of Tantric Hinduism.

Tantric Hinduism

Tantra is literally "what extends." In its Hindu form it may be taken, according to its name, as a movement that sought to extend the Veda (whose pedigree it loosely claimed) and more particularly to extend the universalistic implications of bhakti Hinduism. However, although it was quick to integrate bhakti elements and to influence bhakti in nearly all its forms (late Puranic, popular, and sectarian), its earliest and most enduring forms "extend" Hinduism in ways that were directly opposed to the epic-Puranic bhakti synthesis. Nonetheless, it is still formulated within the same cosmology.

Early Tantrism developed most vigorously, from the fourth to sixth centuries ce, in areas where Brahmanic penetration had been weakest: in the Northwest, in Bengal and Assam in the East, and in the Andhra area of the South. These are areas where one must assume non-Aryan influences in general, and more particularly probably also tribal and folk practices involving shamanism, witchcraft, and sorcery, and, at least in the East and South, a cult of the Goddess. As Tantrism gained currency in succeeding centuries throughout India, the shamanistic and magical features were assimilated to yogic disciplines, while the elevation of the Goddess gave full projection on a pan-Indian scale to roles and images of the Goddess that had been incorporated, but allowed only minimal scope, in the early orthodox bhakti and even earlier Vedic sacrificial traditions. The earliest extant Tantric texts are Buddhist, from about the fourth to sixth centuries. Hindu Tantric texts include Vaiava Sahitās, Śaivāgamas from a slightly later period, and Śākta Tantras (exalting the Goddess as Śakti, or Power) from perhaps the eleventh century on. But from its start Tantrism represented a style and outlook that placed the Goddess at the center of its "extensions" and to a certain extent cut across sectarian and religious distinctions, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or even Jain.

Though Hindu Tantra thus asserts its Vedic legitimacy, its stance is intentionally anti-Brahmanic. It was especially critical of Brahmanic concepts of hierarchy, purity, and sexual status, all of which had been reinforced by the orthodox bhakti synthesis and which were in particular bound up with a theology that viewed the supreme divinity as a male (a Purua, whether Śiva or Viu) whose ultimate form was accessible only beyond the rhythms of the cosmos and its hierarchy of impure and pure, gross and subtle worlds. For Tantrics, dualities were artificial and their experience was the result of delusion. On the analogy of the union between Śiva and Śakti, which in Puranic devotional terms is conceivable only at the end of the mahāpralaya, or great dissolution of the universe, Tantric practice (sādhana ) addresses itself to experiencing the unity of purua and prakti (purua being both "soul" and deity, prakti being both "matter" and Goddess), male and female, pure and impure, knowledge and action, and so on. Most important, all this takes place here and now, not only in this world, where prakti and purua on the macrocosmic scale are one, but in the human body, where their microcosmic embodiments can be experienced. The body thus becomes the ultimate vehicle for liberation, the dissolution of opposites taking place within the psychophysical continuum of the experience of the living adept, who realizes beyond duality the oneness of brahman.

In terms of practice, Tantra's rejection of Hindu orthopraxy is even more decisive. And practice is clearly exalted above theological or philosophical formulation. Two types of Tantra are mentioned: "left-hand" and "right-hand." The Tantric rejection and indeed inveion of orthopraxy is most pronounced in the former, as the right-hand Tantra interprets the most anti-Brahmanic practices of the left metaphorically, and also includes under its heading a wide variety of ceremonial rituals assimilated into bhakti Hinduism that are simply non-Vedic. These include the use of non-Vedic mantra s as well as yantra s and ma ala s, aniconic and non-Vedic geometric devices used for visualization and integration of divine-cosmic forces. Adepts come from all castes, but low-caste and even tribal practitioners and teachers are especially revered. The goal of liberation within the body takes the specific form of seeking magical powers (siddhī s), which in orthodox forms of Hinduism are regarded as hindrances to spiritual achievement. Under the tutelage of a guru, who embodies the fulfillment sought and its transmission and who is thus all-important, the siddhī s are sought through yoga disciplines that show the impact of Tantra through their anatomical analysis of the "subtle body" (liga śarīra ). First practiced is hahayoga, the "yoga of exertion or violence," that is, rigorous physical discipline geared to coordinating the body's "ducts" or "channels" (nāī s) and "energy centers" (cakra s). This is followed by kualiniyoga, which awakens the dormant śakti, conceived as a coiled-up "serpent power" in the lowest cakra between the genitals and the anus, so that it (or she) can pierce and transform all the cakra s (usually six) and unite with Śiva in the "thousand-petaled cakra " in the region of the brain.

Beyond these practices, "left-handed" Tantrics pursue in literal fashion the ceremonial of the "five m 's" (pañcamākarapūjā ). That is, they incorporate into their cultic practice five "sacraments" beginning with the syllable ma: fish (matsya ), meat (māsa ), parched grain (mudrā, regarded as an aphrodisiac), wine (madya ), and finally sexual intercourse (maithuna ). It is likely that most if not all of these practices involve the incorporation of elements of the cult and mythology of the Goddess, who already in the Devimāhātmyam delights in meat and wine and is approached by lustful demons for sexual intercourse. Tantric texts stress that these practices are to be carried out within a circle of adepts and supervised by a male and female pair of "lords of the circle" who insist on strict ritual conventions that guard against an orgiastic interpretation. Classically, the male is to retain his semen at the point of orgasm, this being a sign not only of profound dispassion but an actualization of the nonprocreative union of Śiva and Śakti at the dissolution of the universe of dualities.

It is interesting to note that, although their historical validity is debated by scholars, there are strong Indian traditions suggesting that Śakara's philosophical nondualism had practical Tantric repercussions.

Śakara's Advaita VedĀnta and SmĀrta Orthodoxy

The Advaita (nondualist) interpretation of the Vedānta can be traced back at least to Gauapāda (c. 600 ce), but it is Śakara (c. 788820) who established this viewpoint as the touchstone of a revived smārta orthodoxy. Born in a small Kerala village, Śakara spent his alleged thirty-two years as a vigorous champion of the unity of Hinduism over and against intra-Hindu divisions and the inroads of Buddhism and Jainism. He toured India, setting up monasteries (maha s) near famous temples or holy places at each of the four compass directions, and appointed a disciple at each center to begin a line of renunciant "pontiffs." And he wrote works of great subtlety and persuasiveness, including commentaries on the Upaniads, the Brahma Sūtra, and the Bhagavadgītā that inspired contemporaries, disciples, and authors of later generations to write additional important works from the perspective that he developed.

An essential feature of Śakara's argumentation is that lower views of reality must be rejected as they are contradicted or "sublated" by higher experiences of the real. Finally, all dichotomous formulations must be abandoned upon the nondual experience of the self (ātman ) as brahman. The world of appearance is sustained by ignorance (avidyā ), which "superimposes" limitations on reality. Māyā ("illusion" or "fabrication"), itself neither real nor unreal, is indescribable in terms of being or nonbeing. It appears real only so long as brahman is not experienced. But it is empirically real relative to things that can be shown false from the standpoint of empirical observation. Māyā is thus said to be more mysterious and unknowable than brahman, which is experienced as being, consciousness, and bliss (sat-cit-ānanda ).

As philosophy, Advaita is thus a guide to moka, which is experienced when the ignorance that results from superimposing māyā on brahman is overcome. Liberation arises with knowledge (jñāna ), but from a perspective that recognizes relative truth in the paths of both action and bhakti. Practically, Śakara fostered a rapprochement between Advaita and smārta orthodoxy, which by his time had not only continued to defend the varāśramadharma theory as defining the path of karman, but had developed the practice of pañcāyatanapūjā ("five-shrine worship") as a solution to varied and conflicting devotional practices. Thus one could worship any one of five deities (Viu, Śiva, Durgā, Sūrya, Gaea) as one's iadevatā ("deity of choice"). As far as varāśramadharma was concerned, Śakara left householder issues largely aside and focused instead on founding ten orders of sanyāsi s (the daśanāmi, "ten names"), each affiliated with one of the four principle matha s he founded. But traditional orthodox views of caste were maintained. According to Śakara, as śūdra s are not entitled to hear the Veda, they cannot pursue knowledge of brahman as sanyāsi s; rather they may seek moka through hearing the Mahābhārata and the Purāas. Four of the ten sanyāsi orders were thus restricted to brāhamaas, and it does not seem that any accepted śūdra s until long after Śakara's death. Bhakti sectarian reformers were generally more liberal on this point. As to the god (or gods) of bhakti, Śakara views the deity (Īśvara) as essentially identical with brahman and real relative to empirical experience. But by being identified "with qualities" (sagua ), God can be no more than an approach to the experience of brahman "without qualities" (nirgua ). Viewed from the experience of the self as nirgua brahman, which "sublates" all other experiences, the deity is but the highest form of māyā. Clearly, bhakti traditions could not rest with this solution. But it should be noted that in opposing Śakara and abandoning the universalist vision of the epic-Puranic devotional synthesis, the sects turned their backs on the main impulses that had attempted to sustain the unity of Hinduism.

Sectarian Hinduism

The elaboration of bhakti Hinduism continued to unfold in the later Purāas, linking up with the temple and pilgrimage cultus and with local and regional forms of worship. It thus established itself until the time of Śakara as the main expression of Brahmanic orthodoxy and the main shaping force of popular Hinduism. But though it proclaimed a universal Hinduism, it gave little weight to the problem of the immediate accessibility of salvation. While caste hierarchy was to remain in effect on earth to assure, among other things, the pure temple worship of the gods by the brāhamaas, the ultimate release that the Purāas promised was almost infinitely postponed. It is possible that their postponement of a collective liberation was a kind of purification process for liberated souls and thus a prolongation of the concern for brāhamaa purity on earth. In any case, the remoteness of salvation and the defense of caste purity and hierarchy in the Puranic devotionalism of Brahmanic orthodoxy were probably incentives for the development of alternate forms of bhakti. These emerged in sectarian traditions, in movements led by saint-singers who inspired vernacular forms of bhakti revivalism, and more generally in local and regional forms of Hinduism.

Sectarian traditions

Sectarianism and bhakti revivalism are movements of separate origins that converge for the first time in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the Tamil-speaking area of South India. There the fusion was accomplished in the traditions of the Śrī Vaiavas and the Śaiva Siddhānta, sects whose names indicate their distinctive theological preferences for Viu and Śiva. Henceforth, sectarianism and bhakti revivalism continued to interact and produce hybrid forms as they spread over all of India.

Generally speaking, sects followed a reformist impulse, and in most of them one can identify the emergence of the guru as a new type of figure: not the transmitter of an "impersonal" Vedic teaching, but one who takes inspiration from the personal deity of the sect, with whom he may even be identified. Traditional hierarchy was generally respected, but with the proviso that within the sect divine grace was not limited by caste boundaries. Nonetheless, as groups formed around masters and their teachings, they took on many of the characteristics and functions of castes (endogamy, interior ranking), and certain sects formulated their stands with particularly positive attitudes (the northern school of Śrī Vaiavas) or negative attitudes (Ligāyats and Vīraśaivas) toward brāhamaa s. Sects distinguish themselves over and against each other by many means, and often quite passionately: by bodily markings, forms of yoga discipline, worship, theology, and in particular by their choice of supreme deity, whether Śiva, Viu, Śakti, or, in the North, Ka or Rāma. Nonetheless, they generally participate in wider Hindu activities such as pilgrimage, festival, and temple worship (the Ligāyats are an exception) and draw upon fundamental Hindu belief structures. Thus most sects acknowledge other deities as subordinate to the supreme deity of the sect. In particular, most have worked out ways of encompassing the relation of the God and the Goddess at some fundamental theological level. Persistently the supreme deity is identified both as the ultimate brahman a nd also as in some way personal. The sects also frequently define various stages of divine descent or interaction with the world, various stages of the soul's ascent, and various types of relation between the soul and God. Thus the sects elaborate upon the epic-Puranic cosmology while modifying and refining the theological and soteriological terms. It is only against this background that their formulations are intelligible.

From the historical vantage point, one may note that the consolidation of the separate strands of sectarianism and bhakti revivalism occurs after, and is no doubt in part a response to, the growing success of Śakara's Advaita Vedānta. Prior to Śakara, sectarian groups had centered primarily around distinctive ritual traditions that were increasingly influenced by Tantrism: not only in forms of worship and theological formulation, but also, in some Śaiva sects, in actual practice. Thus the Vaiava Pañcarātras and Vaikhānasas and the Śaiva Pāśupatas (all mentioned first in the late Mahābhārata ) between the fifth and tenth centuries produced their Sahitās and gamas to regularize the construction of temples, iconography, and pūjā ceremonialism. Some Pāśupatas and Kāpālikas (a Tantric Śaiva sect) also incorporated forms of abrupt anticonventional behavior modeled on Śiva's character as the great yogin ascetic. With the exception of the Pañcarātras, who elaborated an influential doctrine of the emanations (vyūha s) of Viu that paralleled the cosmogonic theory of evolution in the Sākhya system, the theological formulations of these movements were apparently among their secondary concerns.

Saint-singer tradition

Whereas the early sectarian movements were able to spread their impact from north to south using Sanskrit as their medium, the bhakti revivalist movement began in the South, drawing on Tamil. Like the sectarian movements, the saint-singers developed their traditions along Vaiava and Śaiva lines. The sixty-three Nāyamār (or Nāyaārs) promoted the worship of Śiva, while the twelve vārs similarly honored Viu. Part of the revivalist motivation was provided by the earlier spread of Buddhism and Jainism in the South, both of which lost considerable following as a result of the efforts of the Nāyamār and vārs, as well as those of their contemporary Śakara.

Some of the most renowned among these two companies of saint-singers have left songs that they composed at the temples of Viu and Śiva, praising the form and presence of the deity therein, the place itself as his manifestation, and the communal attitude of worship generated there through pilgrimage and festival. Though they honor the deities in terms familiar from Puranic myths, the stories are set in the local terrain. The emotional side of bhakti thus draws from deep Tamil traditions, including a revival of classical Tamil poetic conventions involving the correlations between different types of landscape, different divinities, and different types of male-female love. In the hands of the saint-singers, erotic love in particular was drawn on as a metaphor for devotional feelings that stressed the feminine character of the soul in relation to the deity and idealized a softening of the mind or heart that could take the forms of "melting" into the divine, ecstatic rapture, divine madness, and possession.

Following the advent of Śakara, most of the sectarian and revivalist movements found common cause in their devotionalist stance against Advaita nondualism and continued to develop for the most part interdependently. Thus, most formatively, the songs of the vārs were collected in the ninth century for eventual use by the Śrī Vaiavas. And the poems of the Nāyamārsupplemented by the songs of Māikkavācakar, who apparently lived just after the list of sixty-three Nāyamār had been set (ninth century)were collected to form parts of the canon of the Śaiva Siddhānta. However, the revivalist and sectarian strains could also at times follow somewhat independent courses. The saint-singer tradition continued to take Śaiva and Vaiava forms among the Ligāyats and the Haridāsas of Karnataka, and also to be associated there with sects (the Ligāyats themselves and the Brāhma Sapradāya or Dvaita Vedānta tradition of Madhva, respectively). But its spread through Maharashtra, the Hindi-speaking areas of North India, and through Bengal was most focused on Viu, or more accurately on his forms as Rāma and Ka, who in turn, in the Hindi and Bengali areas, became the deities of different sects. In the case of Ka, erotic devotional poetry opened new dimensions on the theme of Ka's love-play with his "new" consort, Rādhā (her name does not appear before the twelfth-century Sanskrit Gitāgovinda by the Bengali court poet Jayadeva). In Hindi and Bengali poems, not only are the emotions of motherly love for the baby Ka and erotic love for the youthful Ka explored, but they are tied in with a classical theory of aesthetic appreciation (rasa ).

As to the sects, the impact of Śakara's Advaita is evident at many points. Although Śaiva monasticism may predate Śakara by about a century, his establishment of maha s around India was highly influential. Certain post-Śakara sects thus adopted institutionalized forms of "monastic" renunciation, either like Śakara setting their matha s alongside the temples (Śrī Vaiavas, Dvaita Vedāntins, Śaiva Siddhāntins) or in opposition to the whole temple cultus (Ligāyats). Vaiava sects also assume henceforth the mantle of new "Vedāntas" in order to seek Vedic authority for their advocacy of bhakti theologies over and against Śakara's nondualism and in their efforts to subordinate the path of knowledge to that of bhakti.

Most distinctive and most important theologically among the Vaiava schools are those of Rāmānuja (c. 10171137) and Madhva (12381317), both of whom attempted to refute Śakara's interpretations of the Upaniads, the Brahma Sūtra, and the Bhagavadgītā with their own commentaries on those texts. The more prolific Madhva also wrote commentaries on the gveda and the epics. Rāmānuja, drawing on the ceremonialism and theological formulations of the Pañcaratra sect as well as on the revivalist poetry of the Avars, developed for the Śrī Vaiavas the first bhakti sectarian repudiation of the Advaita. In his "qualified nondualistic Vedānta" (viśiādvaita vedānta ), he argued that Viu-Nārāyaa is the ultimate brahman, his relation to the world and souls being "qualified" as substance to attribute. World and souls are thus real, as of course is Godall in opposition to Śakara's view that there is no reality other than brahman. For Rāmānuja the three paths not only culminate in bhakti but are crowned by prapatti, "surrender" to God or "falling forward" at his feet. Criticizing both Śakara and Rāmānuja, Madhva's "dualistic Vedānta" (dvaita vedānta ) stressed the absolute sovereignty of God and the fivefold set of absolute distinctions between God and souls, God and the world, souls and souls, souls and the world, and matter in its different aspectsall of which are real and not illusory.

On the Śaiva side, the most distinctive sect is the Kashmir Śaiva, or Trika, school, established in the ninth century, with possibly earlier roots. It is nondualist, but from the standpoint that all is essentially Śiva. As pure being and consciousness, Śiva is aware of himself through reflection in the universe, which he pervades as the ātman and in which he is manifest through his śakti (power, or female energy, personified as the Goddess). The universe is thus an expression of Śiva's aesthetic experience of his creative awareness as self and his delight in unity with his Śakti. "Recognition" of Śiva as the ātman, and experience of the self through spanda ("vibration")an attunement to the blissful throbbing waves of divine consciousness in the heartare among the means to liberation. One of the foremost systematizers of this school was Abhinavagupta (c. 1000 ce), who developed the view that states of aesthetic appreciation (rasa s, "tastes") are modes of experiencing the divine Self. Though favoring śantarasa (the rasa of peacefulness), Abhinavagupta's theories influenced the North Indian medieval devotional poetry that explored bhakti itself as a state of rasa, with such powerfully evocative modes as love of Ka in the relationships of servant-master, parent-child, and lover-beloved. This type of devotional intensity reached its peak in the person of the Bengali saint Caitanya (14861533), founder of the Gauiya Vaiava sect, whose ecstatic dancing and singing enabled him to experience the love of Rādhā and Ka. Popular tradition regards him as an avatāra of Ka, a form assumed by Ka to experience in one body his union with his Sakti.

Popular Hinduism

The main current of living Hinduism is popular Hinduism. It has been affected by every change the tradition has gone through and may fairly be assumed to have ancient roots, in some aspects traceable to Indus Valley religion, in others to śūdra, village, and tribal forms of religion that were never more than alluded toand then negativelyin the ancient and classical sources. Bhakti and Tantra are two movements within Hinduism that draw inspiration from this broad current, and popular Hinduism today remains dominated by bhakti and Tantric expressions.

It is, however, perilous to look at popular Hinduism from the perspective of what it might have once been: that is, to attempt to isolate or reconstruct its Dravidian, pre-Aryan, or non-Brahmanic components. Although hypotheses about pre-Aryan and non-Aryan forms of popular Hinduism are certainly worth pursuing, they must be informed and restrained by a sound understanding of the comprehensive structures through which both popular and Brahmanic forms of Hinduism are integrated at the popular level. Aspects of popular religion that might look non-Aryan turn out on closer examination to involve Vedic prolongations. Nor are recent constructs such as sanskritization, brahmanization, or katriyazationall useful up to a point, but stressing only the adoption by low-caste groups of high-caste modelsadequate to account for the multivectored process that must have occurred for a long time as it continues to occur today.

Amid the bewildering variety of popular Hindu rites, customs, and beliefs, two broad structures can be identified that clarify this overall integration. One involves the working out of the implications of bhakti in relation to temple worship; the other involves the working out of the implications of the caste system in relation to local forms of worship more generally. As they function, the two structures are intimately related.

Generally speaking, whether one defines a locality in large terms (a region, a former kingdom) or small terms (a city, town, or village), one will find two types of divinities: pure and impure. The pure divinities are forms taken locallyavatāra sof the great gods Viu and Śiva. Sometimes the Goddess is also purified to this rank, often with a myth explaining her change from violent to peaceful habits (as with the alleged conveion of the goddess Kāmāki at Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, by Śakara). And in certain regions Śiva's sons Muruka/Skanda (in Tamil Nadu) and Gaeśa (in Maharashtra) also assume this role. In their temples, these gods are offered pure vegetarian food by brahmans. Today, all castes can worship in such temples, thanks to temple entry legislation by the postindependence government; formerly, low castes were excluded. These castes still maintain their own temples where impure gods are served with nonvegetarian offerings, that is, sacrifices of male animals, usually cocks and goats but occasionally water buffalo. Legislation prohibiting buffalo sacrifices has so far had mixed results.

Whereas worship of pure godsespecially at remote pilgrimage sitesis focused ultimately on renunciation and liberation, that of impure gods is dominated by down-to-earth concerns. One thus finds among the general category of impure gods lineage deities (kuladevatā s), caste deities, and village deities (grāmadevata s). The first are usually but not always male, and some are deities for brahman as well as low-caste lineages. Caste deities and village deities are usually female, and the category may overlap where the deity of a locally dominant caste becomes also the village deity. Where the village deity (usually a goddess) is the deity of a vegetarian caste or has had her cult purified to bring it into accord with high-caste standards, she frequently has one or more male assistantsimpure demons converted to her cause and frequently lineage gods themselveswho handle the animal sacrifice (real or symbolic) for her, often out of her line of sight.

Nonetheless, though opposing principles are each given their play, it is their overlap and interrelation that is most striking. Low castes worship the pure gods in their temples. And high castes acknowledge the power of the impure deities, not only as kuladevatā s, but through selective (pure) means of participation in festivals sponsored by lower castes. Through the universalization of bhakti, the impure gods are sometimes also the prototypes for the demons whose deaths at the hands of the pure deities transform them into their devotees. These local myths have their roots in Puranic mythologies, and the sacrificial practices they evoke involve at least in part prolongations and reinterpretations of the Vedic animal sacrifice.

The second issueworking out of the implications of the caste system in relation to local forms of worshiphas thus already been touched upon, but with the focus of issues of purity and impurity as defined by brahman and low-caste involvements. There remains the issue of the role of the katriya, or more particularly the king, as the ruler of the land. The caste system has traditionally functioned in locally defined territories, "little kingdoms," where the local ruler had certain roles to perform. No matter what his actual caste, whether high or low, pure or impure, he had to function as a katriya. In his ceremonial status, he performed the role of jajmān, engaging him at the core of a system of prestations and counterprestations with other castes as a sort of patron for those who perform services for him. Most significantly, this title derives from the Vedic yajamāna, "sacrificer," and prolongs not only the yajamāna' s function as patron of other castes (particularly brahmans, who offer sacrifices for him), but that of "sacrificer" itself. The model of the king as jajmān on the regional territorial level has its counterpart in the village in the person(s) of the leader(s) of the locally dominant caste, who assumes the role of yajamāna at village festivals. When, as was until recently widely the case, the village festival involves the sacrifice of a buffalo, it thus occurs within a continuum that includes the royal buffalo sacrifice traditionally performed in connection with the pan-Hindu festival of Dussera, and the mythology of the goddess Durgā and the buffalo demon Mashāsura that is traceable to the Devimāhātmyam in the Mārkaeya Purāa. There are many local and regional transformations of this pattern, but a basic theme is that the Goddess, who personifies victory, acts for the yajamāna and the kingdom or village in her conquest over demonic forces (impure barbarians, drought, diseases) that threaten the welfare of the local terrain over which she, as goddess, presides.

Hindu Responses to Islam and Westernization

Self-conscious Hindu responses to influences from the West were first worked out in the classical period in the epics, the Dharmaśāstras, and the Purāas. It seems that military dominance by "barbarian" peoples in that period provided one of the incentives for the articulation of Hindu orthodoxy. Islamic rule and Western rule in India have provided similar incentives, but this often goes unmentioned as historians place their emphasis on what is supposedly new. A full accounting of the impact of almost ten centuries of Islam and five centuries of Western presence in India would have to deal not only with their distinctive new influences but also with the ways in which traditional Hindu models have been revived and applied in new and adaptive ways, often on the folk and popular level. That, however, can only be alluded to here.

Islamic influence on Hinduism has many dimensions, all difficult to assess. From the time of the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni into Northwest India (9771030) into the period of Mughal dominance, Hindus had to deal periodically with outbreaks of violence and iconoclastic zeal. Regional defense of Hindu traditions against Islamfirst by the Rajputs in Rajasthan, then by the Vijayanagar rulers and their successors in South India (1333eighteenth century), and finally by the Marathas in Maharashtra and the South (late sixteenth century1761)clearly fostered the Hindu ideal of the territorial kingdom, big or "little," as a model for the protection of ongoing Hindu values. Under the Muslim rulers, in fact, many Hindu chiefs and petty rajas were left in control of their local realms so long as they paid tribute and supplied military support. In these circumstances, conservative and puritanical tendencies seem to have gained momentum in orthodox Hinduism, particularly in regard to caste and the purity of women. Nonetheless, one finds numerous cases where Muslim themes and figures have been integrated into popular Hindu myth and ritual, but usually in ways that indicate Muslim subordination to a local or regional Hindu deity.

While orthodox, popular, and domestic forms of Hinduism thus drew in on themselves, however, Hindu sectarian traditions multiplied, particularly in the period of the breakup of the Delhi sultanate (12061526). Notable at this time were Caitanya in Bengal, and two exemplars of the North Indian sant (holy man) tradition: Kabir (c. 14401518, from Banaras) and Nānak (14691539, from the Punjab). These two latter figures both preached a path of loving devotion to one God that combined aspects of Islamic Sufism and Hindu bhakti. They thus formulated probably for the first time in terms partly Hindu an exclusivist monotheism like that found in the Abrahamic traditions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Over and against the direct experience of this one God, all else was mediate and external, whether the practice were Muslim or Hindu. Thus not only caste but idol worship was rejected by these teachers. But though their syncretistic poetry remained highly popular, it did little to change the Hindu practices it criticized. Nānak's work in particular provided the foundation for the Sikh tradition, an increasingly non-Hindu and non-Muslim movement on its own. Nor did the syncretistic interests of the great Mughal emperor Akbar (ruled 15551605) do much to encourage theological synthesis, despite the popularity of his, for the most part, religiously tolerant rule. Akbar's successors on the Mughal throne abandoned his policies and pursued expansionist goals that aroused resistance from the heirs of the Vijayanagar and the Rajput kingdoms, and especially from the Sikhs and the new power of the Marathas. The seeds of a nationalist vision of Hinduism may be traced through these movements and back to the imperial ideal of the epics.

Under the British, certain reform tendencies initiated under Muslim rule were carried forward, freshly influenced by Christian missionary activity and Western education. Most notable were the reform movements of the nineteenth century. The Brāhmo Samāj was founded in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy (17721833, from Calcutta). In an early treatise Roy wrote an attack on idolatry that showed Muslim influence, but by the time he founded the Samāj he had been more affected by Christianity, and particularly by the Unitarians. Roy thus introduced a kind of deistic monotheism and a form of congregational worship to go along with a rejection of idolatry, caste, sacrifice, transmigration, and karman. The rya Samāj, founded in 1875 by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati (18241883, from Kathiawar), denied authenticity to Puranic Hinduism and attempted a return to the Vedas. Showing that the Vedas lent no support to image worship and various social practices, he went further to assert that they were monotheistic. As regards caste, he championed the vara theory as an ancient social institution but denied that it was religious. Both movements split into rival camps.

The Ramakrishna Mission, established on the death of its founder Ramakrishna (18341886) and carried forward by his disciples, most notably Vivekananda (18631902), is more representative of traditional Hindu values. Strong bhakti and Tantric strains converged in the mystical experiences of Ramakrishna and were held in conjunction with an initiation into Advaita Vedānta and experiences of the oneness of all religions through visions not only of Hindu deities but of Jesus and Allāh. For many followers, this humble priest of Kālī has thus come to be regarded as an avatāra, in the tradition of Caitanya. Vivekananda, Western-educated and keenly intellectual, attended the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, lectured widely, and established the Vedānta Society of New York. When he returned to India as a recognized champion of Hindu self-pride, he helped to organize the disciples of Ramakrishna into the pan-Indian Ramakrishna Mission. The first such teacher to gain prominence in India by popularity gained abroad, he thus inadvertently set up a pattern that has been followed by many prominent gurus and swamis in the twentieth century. Notable among them are Swami A. C. Bhaktivedānta (18961977), founder of the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON) as an outgrowth of the Bengal Caitanya tradition, and Swami Muktananda (19081982), exponent of siddhayoga teachings that draw on Kashmir Saivism.

An earlier figure, one who attracted a large Western following without ever leaving India, was Śrī Aurobindo (18721950), whose career spanned nationalist political activism in Bengal (up to 1908), followed by the establishment of an ashram (hermitage) in Pondicherry for the teaching of a type of integral yoga that stressed the "evolutionary" progress of the soul toward the divine. One must also mention Mohandas K. Gandhī (18691948), whose reputation upon returning to India in 1915 after twenty-one years in England and Africa was not that of a guru but a champion of Indian causes against social and economic discrimination. As he took on more and more ascetic and saintly aspirations, however, Gandhī sought to combine an ideal of dispassioned and nonviolent service to humanity, modeled on the Bhagavadgītā 's doctrine of karmayoga, with work for Indian svarāj ("self-rule").

Although sometimes referred to as a Hindu renaissance, the effect of the various reformers since the nineteenth century has been to a certain extent more ideological than religious. Where they founded religious movements, these attracted only small followings. But their religious viewsthat Hinduism is essentially monotheistic, that caste is not essentially Hindu, that Hindu tolerance does not deny the truths of other religions, that Hinduism is in accord with modern science, and so onhave had major influence on a Western-educated, largely urban elite that, at least for now, controls the media and the educational processes of contemporary India. It remains to be seen how this new vision of unity will square with the traditionally diverse Hinduism of the vast population of the countryside.

See Also

Arya Samaj; Avatāra; Bengali Religions; Bhagavadgītā; Bhakti; Brāhamaas and rayakas; Brahmo Samaj; Buddhism, Schools of, article on Esoteric Buddhism; Cosmology, article on Hindu Cosmology; Dharma, article on Hindu Dharma; Domestic Observances, article on Hindu Practices; Drama, article on Indian Dance and Dance Drama; Goddess Worship, article on The Hindu Goddess; Hindi Religious; Hindu Religious Year; Hindu Tantric Literature; Iconography, article on Hindu Iconography; Indian Philosophies; Indian Religions, article on Rural Traditions; Indus Valley Religion; International Society for Krishna Consciousness; Kaism; Līlā; Mahābhārata; Marathi Religions; Music, article on Music and Religion in India; Poetry, article on Indian Religious Poetry; Priesthood, article on Hindu Priesthood; Pūjā, article on Hindu Pūjā; Purāas; Rāmāyaa; Rites of Passage, article on Hindu Rites; Śaivism; Śakara; Śāstra Literature; Southeast Asian Religions; Sūtra Literature; Tamil Religions; Tantrism; Temple, article on Hindu Temples; Upaniads; Vaiavism; Vara and Jāti; Vedāgas; Vedas; Vedism and Brahmanism; Worship and Devotional Life, article on Hindu Devotional Life.

Bibliography

Three introductions to the whole Hindu tradition deserve recommendation: Thomas J. Hopkins's The Hindu Religious Tradition (Encino, Calif., 1971) is strongest in the early period (a second edition is expected); Madeleine Biardeau's L'hindouisme: Anthropologie d'une civilisation (Paris, 1981) is strongest on the classical period and popular traditions; and J. L. Brockington's The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in Its Continuity and Diversity (New York, 1981) is strongest on medieval and modern Hinduism. On Indus Valley religion, a balanced and visually informative presentation is found in Robert E. Mortimer Wheeler's Civilizations of the Indus Valley and Beyond (New York, 1966). On pre-Upaniadic Vedic religion as a whole, see Jan Gonda's Vedic Literature: Sahitās and Brāhamaas (Wiesbaden, 1975), vol. 1, no. 1 of his History of Indian Literature. On Indo-European continuations in early Indian religion, see Georges Dumézil's The Destiny of the Warrior, translated by Alf Hiltebeitel (Chicago, 1970). On gvedic religion, see Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty's The Rig Veda: An Anthology (Harmondsworth, England, 1982) for a selection of important hymns; Jan Gonda's The Vision of the Vedic Poets (The Hague, 1963), for an account of the Vedic poetic process; Arthur A. Macdonell's Vedic Mythology (1897; reprint, New York, 1974), for the classic account of Vedic myth; and R. Gordon Wasson's Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (New York, 1968), for his interpretation of the soma plant. On the Brāhamaas and Vedic ritual, see Sylvain Lévi's La doctrine du sacrifice dans les Brâhmaas, 2d ed. (Paris, 1966), for a classic study focused on the mythology; Madeleine Biardeau and Charles Malamoud's Le sacrifice dans l'Inde ancienne (Paris, 1976), especially the essay by Malamoud on the place of the ritual honoraria (dakinā s) in the sacrificial round; and Arthur Berriedale Keith's The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, 2d ed. (Westport, Conn., 1971), for a solid overview. On the Upaniads, Paul Deussen's The Philosophy of the Upanihads, 2d ed., translated by A. S. Gelden (New York, 1966), is still the standard comprehensive study. On the classical Hindu period as a whole, Madeleine Biardeau's study in Le sacrifice (cited above) and Cosmogonies purāiques, (Paris, 1981), vol. 1 of her Études de mythologie hindoue, are indispensable for their integrative treatment. On dharma literature, see Pandurang Vaman Kane's monumental A History of Dharmaśāstra, 5 vols. (Poona, 19301962), which covers far more besides, and Robert Lingat's The Classical Law of India, translated by J. D. M. Derrett (Berkeley, Calif., 1973), an invaluable overview. On caste, see Louis Dumont's Homo Hierarchicus, translated by Marc Sainsbury, rev. ed. (Chicago, 1970), discussing his own and others' theories. On the six philosophical systems, for the most authoritative overview see Surendranath Dasgupta's A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 vols. (Cambridge, 19221955). On classical bhakti and its mythology in the epics and Purāas, in addition to the works above by Biardeau, see also her important "Études de mythologie hindoue," parts 1 and 2, Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême Orient 63 (1976): 111263, and 65 (1978): 87238. My own The Ritual of Battle: Krishna in the "Mahābhārata" (Ithaca, N. Y., 1976) and Jacques Scheuer's Śiva dans le Mahābhārata (Paris, 1982) explore complementary roles of the major deities in the Mahābhārata; see also the classic study of E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology (1915; reprint, New York, 1969). On Puranic materials, see Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Purāas, translated and edited by Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen (Philadelphia, 1978), a representative selection with interpretative introductions; and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty's Śiva: The Erotic Ascetic (Oxford, 1973), on major themes in the mythology of Śiva, and Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (Chicago, 1980), on relations between the sexes and between humans, gods, and animals in the myths. On temple architecture and symbolism, see Stella Kramrisch's The Hindu Temple, 2 vols. (Calcutta, 1946). For a sound and highly readable translation of the Bhagavadgītā, and an important introduction, see The Bhagavadgītā in the Mahābhārata translated and edited by J. A. B. van Buitenen (Chicago, 1981). On Tantra, see Agehananda Bharati's The Tantric Tradition (London, 1965) and Sanjukta Gupta, Dirk Jan Hoens, and Teun Goudriaan's Hindu Tantrism (Leiden, 1979). For an incisive presentation of Śakara's nondualism, see Eliot Deutsch's Advaita Vedānta: A Philosophical Reconstruction (Honolulu, 1969). On Yoga and asceticism, see Mircea Eliade's Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 2d ed. (Princeton, N.J., 1969); see also G. S. Ghurye's Indian Sadhus, 2d ed. (Bombay, 1964) with discussion of monastic orders. On sectarian Hinduism, see R. G. Bhandarkar's Vaiavism, Śaivism, and Minor Religious Systems (1913; reprint, Varanasi, 1965), still a classic overview. On bhakti revivalism, see V. Raghavan's The Great Integrators: The Saint-Singers of India (Delhi, 1966). On popular Hinduism, Henry Whitehead's The Village Gods of South India, 2d ed., rev. & enl. (Delhi, 1976), is the essential documentary introduction; Marie-Louise Reiniche's Les dieux et les hommes: Étude des cultes d'un village du Tirunelveli Inde du Sud (New York, 1979) and Lawrence A. Babb's The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India (New York, 1975) are important regional studies with significant anthropological insights; David D. Shulman's Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Śaiva Tradition (Princeton, N.J., 1980) discusses local temple veions and inversions of the classical bhakti myths. On reform movements and modern Hinduism, see John N. Farquhar's Modern Religious Movements in India (New York, 1915), on nineteenth-century figures, and Agehananda Bharati's Hindu Views and Ways and the Hindu-Muslim Interface (Delhi, 1981), for an interesting inside-outside anthropological view.

New Sources

Flood, Gavin D. An Introduction to Hinduism. New York, 1996.

Klostermaier, Klaus K. A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Oxford, 1998.

Klostermaier, Klaus K. A Short Introduction to Hinduism. Oxford, England, 1998.

Knipe, David M. Hinduism: Experiments in the Sacred. Religious Traditions of the World. San Francisco, 1991.

Sharma, Arvind. Modern Hindu Thought: The Essential Texts. New Delhi; New York, 2002.

Alf Hiltebeitel (1987)

Revised Bibliography

Hinduism

views updated May 18 2018

Hinduism

Abhidhyan Yoga Institute

Adidam

Advaita Fellowship

Ajapa Yoga Foundation

All World Gayatri Pariwar

American Meditation Society

American Vegan Society

American Yoga Association

Amrit Yoga Institute

Amrita Foundation

Ananda

Ananda Ashrama

Ananda Marga Yoga Society

Anasuya Foundation

Anoopam Mission

Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhala (AMOOKOS)

Arsha Vidya Pitham

Art of Living Foundation

Arunachala Ashrama

Arya Samaj

Aurobindo, Disciples of Sri

Badarikashrama

Barry Long Foundation International

Bhakti Marga Foundation

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University

Chinmaya Mission West

Church of the Christian Spiritual Alliance (CSA)

Cross and the Lotus

Datta Yoga Center

Deva Foundation

Devatma Shakti Society

Devi Mandir

Dhyanyoga Centers

Divine Love Mission

Dynastic Kriya Yoga

EnlightenNext

Fivefold Path Inc.

Foundation of Revelation

Gangaji Foundation

Grace Essence Fellowship

Haidakhan Samaj

Hamsa Yoga Sangh

Hanuman Foundation

Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy

Hohm Community

Holy Shankaracharya Order

Indo-American Yoga-Vedanta Society

Institute of Advanced Mutuality

Integral Yoga International

Inter Faith Center (IFC) Temple of Divine Love

Intergalactic Culture Foundation

International Babaji Kriya Yoga Sangam

International Divine Realization Society

International Gurukulam

International Meditation Institute

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)

Isha Foundation

ISKCON Revival Movement

Jean Klein Foundation

Kali Mandir

Kashi Church Foundation

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

Krishnamurti Foundation of America

Kriya Yoga Centers

Kriya Yoga Tantra Society

Kundalini Research Foundation

Life Bliss Foundation

Life Mission

Light of Sivananda-Valentina, Ashram of

Lokenath Divine Life Fellowship

Lovers of Meher Baba

Ma Yoga Shakti International Mission

Mahayog Foundation

Mata Amritanandamayi Center

Matri Satsang

Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies

Moksha Foundation

Mother Meera Society

Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust

New Vrindaban Community

Nityananda Institute, Inc.

Oneness Movement North America

Parmarth Niketan

Prana Yoga Ashram

Pranayana Institute

Raj-Yoga Math and Retreat

Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Mission

S. A. I. Foundation

Sacha Dham Ashram

Sacred Space Yoga Sanctuary

Sadhana Ashram

Saeejis Temple of Peace

Sahaja Yoga Center

Saiva Siddhanta Church

The Sambodh Society, Inc.

Sant Shri Asarmaji Ashram

Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii

Sarva Dharma Sambhava Kendra

Sarvamangala Mission

Satsang with Robert

Satsang with Stuart

Self-Realization Fellowship

Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism

Shanti Mandir

Shanti Temple

Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat

Shiva-Shakti Kashmir Shavite Ashram

Shri Krishna Pranami Association of U.S.A. and Canada

Shri Ram Chandra Mission

Shri Shivabalayogi International Maharaj Trust

Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers

SMVA Trust

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT)

Source School of Tantra Yoga

Spiritual Realization Institute

Sree Rama Dasa Mission

Sri Caitanya Sanga

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mandal

Sri Chinmoy Centre

Sri Premananda Center

Sri Rama Foundation

SRV Association of America

Swami Kuvalayananda Yoga Foundation

SYDA Foundation

Tantrika International

Temple of Cosmic Religion

Temple of Kriya Yoga

Traditional Yoga Academy

Truth Consciousness

Vedanta Centre and Ananda Ashrama

Vedantic Center

Vedic Society of America

Veerashaiva Samaja of North America

Vimala Thakar, Friends of

Vivekananda Vedanta Society

VRINDA/The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies

World Community

World Community Service

World Plan Executive Council-US

Yasodhara Ashram Society

Yoga House Ashram

Yoga in Daily Life

Yoga Research Foundation

Dharma Mittra Yoga

Abhidhyan Yoga Institute

PO Box 1414, Nevada City, CA 95959-1414

Alternate Address

c/o Modern Seers Inc., PO Box 272, Fredonia, NY 14063

The Abhidhyan Yoga Institute was founded in 1991 by Anatole Ruslanov to prepare interested persons for what is termed abhidhyan yoga or all-embracing yoga, a form of tantric yoga that has survived through the centuries only in a few obscure Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions.

Ruslanov completed a period of monastic training in Varanasi, India, with Shri Anandamurti (1921–1990), founder of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. Following his monastic training, he continued his study with Anandamurti and eventually became a spiritual teacher and a bearer of the lineage. After his master’s death, he founded his own teaching work. New students are expected to start a regular personal practice of meditation and asanas (body postures), adhere to a set of moral principles, and find a competent trustworthy teacher to follow.

Membership

Not reported. There are members in seven countries.

Periodicals

The Tantrik Path.

Sources

Modern Seers: Authentic No-Nonsense Modern Nondual Tantra Yoga Meditation. www.abhidhyan.org/.

Adidam

12040 N Seigler Rd., Middletown, CA 95461

Adidam, formerly known as Free Daist Communion, was founded in 1972 by Franklin Jones (b. 1939). In 1960, after “a crisis of despair,” he began a period of introspection that led him to study with Swami Rudrananda (1928–1973), an American disciple of Swami Muktananda (1908–1982). At Rudrananda’s suggestion, he studied for a time in a Lutheran seminary. In 1968, he traveled to India to meet Muktananda. At Muktananda’s ashram, he had his first adult experience of total absorption into transcendental consciousness. Later he was guided in the subtle form by Muktananda’s guru, Swami Nityananda (1897–1961), and finally by the female personification of divine energy (Shakti).

On September 10, 1970, he entered what he has termed the permanent and unconditional state of sahaj samadhi, or “open eyes,” which is coessential with the divine being consciousness itself. This is the condition that, according to his own confession, he consciously relinquished in his earliest years, and that he had been moved to recover throughout his life. Soon after this experience, he began to teach in order to transmit the God-realization he had attained. In 1973 he changed his name to Bubba Free John—Bubba denoting brother—and changed his method of teaching. He involved his students in the realms of experience that human beings are typically drawn to, including sexuality, the pursuit of material pleasure, and indulgence in spiritual and psychic phenomena. This method was aimed at showing the futility of seeking for any form of experience.

In 1979, Bubba Free John entered a new phase of work and adopted the name Da Free John—Da signifying giver. During this phase, he instructed his students in forms of sacramental worship and their relationship to him as spiritual master rather than brother. In 1986, his active teaching work came to an end, and he became known as Heart-Master Da Love-Ananda, or more formally Avadhoota Da Love-Ananda Hridayam. While he has continued to give instruction since 1986, he has been concentrating on the transmission of his divine condition.

He is now referred to as Avatar Adi Da Samraj. As Avatar Adi Da’s work has grown and changed, so has the name of the body of practitioners from Shree Hridayam Satsang, to Dawn Horse Communion, to Free Primitive Church of Divine Communion, to Free Daist Communion, and most recently to Adidam.

The teachings of Avatar Adi Da have been termed, among other things, the “way of radical understanding.” The foundation of this way is the relinquishment of the illusion of separateness of an individual existence, on the basis of the understanding that the apparent separateness is fundamentally an activity rather than a fixed entity. There is only the all-comprehensive reality: being consciousness bliss. This native condition of existence becomes obvious when all seeking and all activity of separation cannot be transcended (i.e., when radical understanding prevails). Enlightenment, thus, already exists: It cannot be attained by any strategy of individual effort. It must, however, be realized. To unlock the activity of seeking and separation is understood to be a matter of grace and revelation from Avatar Adi Da. Thus, the essence of his way is the devotional and spiritual relationship to him as spiritual master rather than any technique that one could apply to oneself.

Avatar Adi Da has created a definitive summary of his 30 years of teaching in a series of 23 books. One tool he has given, to enable one’s understanding of other spiritual teachings and the progressive courses of realization, is the seven stages of life: Stage one begins at birth and focuses upon physical adaptation to the world; stage two, beginning around age seven, focuses upon socialization and emotional adaption to the world; stage three is a period of development of the mind, will, and emotional-sexual functions; stage four marks the beginning of spiritual awakening; stage five relates to the mystical inner search and the possibilities of subtle spiritual experience; stage six is the profound state of abiding as consciousness itself, but on the basis of excluding the awareness of the body, the mind, and the world; and stage seven is what Avatar Adi Da calls “divine enlightenment.” It is the culmination of the entire spiritual process, in which the realizer exists entirely and permanently as “love bliss consciousness,” regardless of whether any form of experience arises or not. Avatar Adi Da is recognized by his devotees as the final manifestation of the divine in human form. Thus, it is understood that the realization of the seventh stage of life is only possible for those who enter into a formal devotional relationship with him.

Membership

In 2002 there were approximately 1,200 members in the United States, 60 members in Canada, and more than 400 overseas. Some members now live at the resident retreat center in the Fiji Islands. Foreign centers are located in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, the Middle East, and India.

Educational Facilities

Adidam Academy.

Periodicals

Adidam Revelation Magazine.

Sources

Adi Da Samraj and the Spiritual Practice of Adidam. www.adidam.org.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj and the First 25 years of His Divine Revelation Work. Middletown, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1997.

Feuerstein, George, ed. Humor Suddenly Returns: Essays on the Spiritual Teaching of Master Da Free John. Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1984.

Johannie Daist Communion. The Next Option: An Introduction to the Teaching of the Adept Da Free John and the Johannie Daist Communion. Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1984.

Jones, Franklin. The Dawn Horse Testament of Heart-Master Da Free John. San Rafael, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1985.

———. The Holy Jumping-Off Place: An Introduction to the Way of the Heart. San Rafael, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1986.

———. The Knee of Listening. Los Angeles, CA: Ashram, 1972.

———. The Method of the Siddhas. Los Angeles, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1973.

———. No Remedy: An Introduction to the Life and Practices of the Spiritual Community of Bubba Free John. Lower Lake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1976.

Advaita Fellowship

PO Box 911-WS, Redondo Beach, CA 90277

The Advaita Fellowship was founded following Ramesh S. Balsekar’s (b. 1917) 1987 visit to the United States. Balsekar is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981). Nisargadatta was a guru in a lineage that began with Saint Jnaneshwar (1275–1296), who lived in Maharashtra, India, in the thirteenth century and passed on a practice of jnana yoga, that is, the philosophical approach to spiritual enlightenment through advaita vedanta (the belief in nonduality). Maharaj was a popular teacher known for his ability to speak about profound thought so all could understand. He rarely gave lectures, but generally taught by holding conversations with those around him.

Balsekar was a graduate of London University who became a successful banker. He retired in 1970 and, at about the same time, met Maharaj. He became a close disciple and began to keep a record of his conversations, later the subject of several books. Meanwhile several Westerners came to know of Maharaj and began to spread his teachings in Europe and America. Maurice Frydman (1900–1976) transcribed and published the first book of his teachings, I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj; and in 1982, author Peter Brent wrote of him in Godmen of India. Jean Dunn, noting the relationship between Maharaj’s teachings and those of Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), published articles about Maharaj in The Mountain Path, the magazine from Maharshi’s ashram (religious community). Dunn later edited the first books on Maharaj published in America.

In the years since Maharaj’s death in 1981, Balsekar has been active in spreading the teachings of advaita Vedanta, and has traveled to the United States annually since his first visit in 1987. Advaita teaches that suffering comes from the mistaken idea that human beings are separate entities. It emphasizes that, in fact, the human soul (atman) and the universal soul (brahman) are one and the same. In the realization of that simple truth, ignorance and suffering are dispelled.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Advaita Fellowship. www.advaita.org.

Balsekar, Ramesh S. Experiencing the Teaching. Redondo Beach, CA: Advaita Press, 1988.

———. From Consciousness to Consciousness: Letters of Ramesh S. Balsekar. Los Angeles, CA: Advaita Press, 1989.

Brent, Peter. The Godmen of India. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1972.

Dunn, Jean, ed. Prior to Consciousness: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Durham, NC: Acorn Press, 1985.

———. Seeds of Consciousness: The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. New York: Grove Press, 1982.

Maharaj, Nisargadatta. I Am That. Bombay, India: Chetana, 1973.

Powell, Robert, ed. The Blissful Life as Realized through the Teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Durham, NC: Acorn Press, 1984.

Ajapa Yoga Foundation

c/o Shri Janardan Ajapa Yoga Ashram, PO Box 1731, Placerville, CA 95667

Ajapa yoga is a simple meditation and breathing technique believed by its practitioners to be the most ancient form of yoga, developed thousands of years ago by the rishis (seers) of India. Thus it is believed to be the original yoga, not a composite, abbreviation, or updated version of the forms of yoga. Ajapa yoga was redis-covered and given to the modern world by Guru Purnananda Paramahansa (1834–1928). He learned of the practice from Matang Rishi in a hidden monastery in Tibet, China. He created three ashrams in Bengal to spread the teachings that, while very old, had not been widely available until the last half of the nineteenth century. The work begun by Purnananda was continued by his disciple, Guru Bhumananda Paramahansa (1873–1958), who in turn passed the succession to Guru Janardan Paramahansa (1888–1980). Guru Janardan organized the World Conference on Scientific Yoga in New Delhi, which brought him into contact with many Westerners. Following the conference, he accepted an invitation to lecture in Czechoslovakia and expanded his Western tour to include Germany, Canada, and the United States. After being in the West for over a year, he returned to India.

Some of the Westerners he encountered upon his tour traveled to India in 1973. In 1974, upon their return to New York, they incorporated the Ajapa Yoga Foundation. Guru Janardan made visits in 1974, 1975, and 1976, establishing centers in Hamburg, Germany; Montreal, Quebec; Los Angeles, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Knoxville, Tennessee. The Ajapa Journal was begun in 1976, and a book summarizing the foundation’s teachings was published. From this modest beginning, the foundation has steadily grown.

On January 6, 1966, Guru Paramahansa found a baby boy by the banks of the Ganges River, and named him Guru Prasad (b. 1966). He predicted that Guru Prasad would be a self-realized saint who would have a large role in helping suffering humanity. He trained him from birth for this purpose, and in 1980 Guru Prasad became the only living master of ajapa yoga. According to Guru Prasad, “A person has but to practice this technique and everything will be answered, naturally and automatically.”

According to the foundation’s teachings, humans have lost their true identities and are left in a world of pain, want, and illusion. True identity can be gained by the practice of ajapa yoga, beginning with the meditation on the mantra given by the guru at the time of initiation, accompanied by specific breathing techniques.

Membership

In 2008 there was only one ajapa yoga ashram in North America. Affiliated centers are also found in India, Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. There were approximately 10,000 members worldwide.

Periodicals

The Ajapa Journal.

Sources

Jai Guru: Ajapa Yoga Homepage. www.ajapa.org/.

Tattwa Katha: A Tale of Truth. New York: Ajapa Yoga Foundation, 1976–1979.

All World Gayatri Pariwar

c/o Gayatri Gyan Mandir, 5N 371 IL Route 53 (Rohwling Rd.), Itasca, IL 60143

All World Gayatri Pariwar was founded by Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya (1911–1990) to deal with the human condition, which is characterized by ignorance, lack of righteousness and joy, insecurities, and infirmities, and to encourage the divinity in human beings and a heavenly atmosphere on earth. Sharma proposed a broad program that built on several means of spiritual awakening: upasana (contemplation on the divine virtues); sadhana (the practice of self-control for acquiring the divine virtues); aradhana (the utilization of acquired resources for the welfare of all of society); and the propagation of Gayatri (collective wisdom) and Yagna (cooperative virtuous demeanor). It was Sharma’s belief that Indian culture was founded on the principles of Gayatri (the goddess of wisdom and pure intelligence and the protector of prana, vital life force) and Yagna (oblations made to the holy fire, symbolizing noble deeds).

Sharma was initiated into the worship of Gayatri, using the Gayatri Mantra, at age nine. In 1926 he met Swami Sarveshvaranandji, a Himalayan yogi, who appeared before him in an astral body. This experience clarified Sharma’s understanding of his own divine origin and gave him a purpose in life. He devoted the next twenty-four years to a rigorous program of devotion, undertaking in each year a mahapurashcharana, in which he recited the Gayatri Mantra 2.4 million times, and pursuing altruistic activities without withdrawing from family life.

In 1943 he married Bhagwati Devi (1926–1994), a bhakti devotee. After completing the twenty-four mahapurashcharanas, in 1953 Sharma established Gayatri Tapobhumi at Mathura, India. Five years later, he organized a large Gayatri yajna (fire ceremony) to launch his Yug Nirman Yojna (mission for creation of a new era), a global movement for moral, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual revitalization. At Mathura he assembled a team of dedicated men and women to form a new organization, the Gayatri Pariwar, which superseded Yug Nirman Yojna. In 1971 the mission’s headquarters at Shantikunj (Haridwar, India) was established as an academy for moral and spiritual awakening and training.

When Sharma died in 1990 his widow assumed leadership of the movement. Two years later she announced a plan for the global spread of the movement to be marked by a series of Grand Ashwamedha yagyas (ceremonies) to be performed in different locations, including Leicester, England, Toronto, Canada, and Los Angeles, California. Bhagwati Devi attended 18 of the ceremonies.

The present leaders of the worldwide movement are Rev. Dr. Pranav Pandya and Rev. Smt. Shailbala Pandya, the daughter of the founders. Centers are located in India, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, and across Europe. African centers are found in Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Membership

Not reported. In the United States there are four main centers (Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and New Jersey), and smaller centers across the country. Contacts in Canada are found in the Toronto and Montreal metropolitan areas.

Sources

Gayatri Pariwar. www.awgp.org/.

Sharma Archarya, Shriram. Divine Message of the Veds. Mathura, India: Yug Nirman Yojna, 1997.

———. Simple Ways for Peace and Happiness. Chicago: Gayatri Pariwar Chicago, 2002.

American Meditation Society

2912 N Main St., Apt. #2, Flagstaff, AZ 62025

The American Meditation Society is the U.S. affiliate of the International Foundation for Spiritual Unfoldment founded in 1975 in Cape Town, South Africa, by Purushottan Narshinhran (b. 1932), whom his followers know by his spiritual name, Gururaj Ananda Yogi. As a child in his native Gujurat, India, he showed a distinct focus upon spiritual realities. When he was five years old he ran away from home to visit the temples in the neighborhood. When he was found, he explained to his parents that he had visited many temples, but had found to his frustration that “the Gods were lifeless and would not speak to me.” His continued search for the divine culminated when he discovered that what he sought lay within himself. Having found the inner reality and having fully and permanently entered the self-realized state, he set himself to the task of becoming a spiritual teacher in the West.

He moved to South Africa and became a successful businessman. In 1975, following a problem with his heart, he retired from business and turned to full-time work as a spiritual teacher. He then founded the International Foundation for Spiritual Unfoldment. Within the first year it had spread to nine countries in the British Commonwealth and throughout Europe. In 1977 it was organized in California as the American Meditation Society.

Gururaj Ananda Yogi teaches not a religion, but the basis that underlies all religions. His task is seen as merely to awaken the individual to the same reality that he discovered and to lead him or her along the path of unfoldment. Meditation is the individual’s major tool in turning inward, and it works best if individualized. The society offers basic meditation courses, which introduce the variety of ways to meditate. Narshinhran assists in the process of individualizing sound which is intoned during meditation. Individuals send their pictures to him; he meditates upon the picture and comes up with the sound he believes each person makes with the universe, then presents the distinct sound to each person as a unique personal mantrum.

Membership

Not reported. In 1984 the society had approximately 2,000 members in 30 centers. In 2008, the foundation had centers in Canada, Australia, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Great Britain, and South Africa.

Periodicals

American Meditation Society Newsletter.

Sources

Anderson, V., and R. Morosani, eds. From Darkness to Light: A Selection of Talks by Guruaj Ananda Yogi. Farmingdale, NY: Coleman Publishing, 1987.

Taylor, Savita. The Path to Unfoldment: An Introduction to the Teachings of Guruaj Ananda Yogi. London: VSM Publications, 1979.

American Vegan Society

56 Dinshah Ln., PO Box 369, Malaga, NJ 08328-0908

The American Vegan Society was founded in 1960 at Malaga, New Jersey, by H. Jay Dinshah (1933–2000). The basis of the society is ahimsa, defined as “dynamic harmlessness.” The six pillars of ahimsa (one for each letter) are abstinence from all animal products, particularly for food or clothing; harmlessness and reverence for life; integrity of thought, word, and deed; mastery over oneself; service to humanity, nature, and creation; and advancement of understanding and truth. Veganism is conceived as an advanced and comprehensive program for living and draws its inspiration from Donald Watson (1910–2005) and the Vegan Society, England, as well as from ahimsa and reverence for life as expressed by Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965), and other sages. Vegans are total vegetarians who only eat food from plants and exclude all animals (meat, fish, fowl) and animal products (milk, eggs, honey, and so forth) from their diet. They are also ecology-oriented because this lifestyle is economical of natural resources. Not just a matter of diet, the philosophy extends to clothing and toiletries, among other things.

The society is headquartered at Suncrest, which runs as a teaching center, at Malaga, New Jersey. An annual convention is held. The society is affiliated with the North American Vegetarian Society, headquartered at Dolgeville, New York, and the International Vegetarian Union in England.

Membership

The society reported a membership of more than 1,000 in 2002.

Periodicals

American Vegan.

Sources

American Vegan Society. www.americanvegan.org.

Dinshah, Freya. The Vegan Kitchen. Malaga, NJ: American Vegan Society, 1970.

Dinshah, H. Jay. Out of the Jungle. Malaga, NJ: American Vegan Society, 1995.

American Yoga Association

PO Box 19986, Sarasota, FL 34276

The American Yoga Association was established in 1968 as the Light of Yoga Society by Alice Christensen. Christensen began her spiritual quest in 1953 when she had a visionary experience in which she was engulfed by a white light. She subsequently learned of Swami Sivananda Sivananda (1887–1963), the head of the Divine Life Society in India, and corresponded with him for many years. In 1964, the year after Sivananda’s death, she traveled to India and met Swami Rama (1900–1972) of Hardwar, India, and became his student. Swami Rama (not to be confused with the person of the same name who founded the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga, Science, and Philosophy) had spent three years as a recluse in the Himalayas before settling in Hardwar as a teacher of yoga.

As Swami Rama’s representative in the West, Christensen began to teach yoga in 1965 and six years later founded the Light of Yoga Society in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. At the time of Swami Rama’s death in 1972, there were 11 yoga centers throughout India, Australia, and the United States that he had guided. The name American Yoga Society was adopted in 1982. More recently headquarters were transferred to Sarasota, Florida.

Swami Rama developed a simplified form of the wisdom of the Vedanta, and a form of hatha yoga especially for Western practitioners. Members of the society practice both hatha and meditation daily. They also consume a vegetarian diet, practice ahimsa (nonviolence), avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, and are restrained in their use of sex.

Membership

Not reported. There are two centers in the United States and two affiliated centers in India.

Sources

American Yoga Association. www.americanyogaassociation.org.

Christensen, Alice. The American Yoga Association Beginner’s Manual. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Amrit Yoga Institute

PO Box 5340, Salt Springs, FL 32134

Amrit Institute was founded by Yogi Amrit Desai, a yoga teacher who began teaching in the United States in 1960. During the early 1970s, based upon the spontaneous flow of yoga postures he experienced during his daily practice, he began to develop a new form that he named Kripalu yoga, after his yoga teacher in India, Swami Kripalvanandaji (1913–1981). Over the next twenty years Desai taught hundreds of students his new form of yoga, and many went on to become yoga instructors and head of their own centers. He also founded and led the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.

In 1994 Desai resigned from the Kripalu Center and entered a period of retirement. After several years he began teaching again, and early in the new century founded Amrit Yoga Institute. He also continued to develop the unique form of hatha yoga he taught, which he now calls the Amrit method. The Amrit method attempts to integrate raja yoga (meditation) with hatha yoga to produce a practice that allows a convergence of inner stillness with effortless outer action.

The Amril Yoga Institute is located on Lake Kerr in the Ocala National Forest in Florida. The institute is designed to accommodate a core resident staff and provide a full set of events for students who come for workshops and retreats.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Amrit Yoga Instituite. www.amrityoga.com/.

Desai, Yogi Amrit. Amrit Yoga and the Yoga Sutras—Amrit Yoga and Its Roots in Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga. Salt Springs, FL: Yoga Network International, 2002.

———. Amrit Yoga: Explore, Expand, Experience the Spiritual Depth of Yoga. Salt Springs, FL: Yoga Network International, 2002.

In the Presence of a Master: Gurudev Yogi Amrit Desai. Lenox, MA: Kripalu Publications, 1992.

Amrita Foundation

PO Box 190978, Dallas, TX 75219-0978

The Amrita Foundation is an independent organization founded in 1976 and based upon the teachings of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952). The organization emphasizes the original nature of the material it uses, especially the original praecepta lessons (instructions by the teacher), the home study course through which the foundation presents Yogananda’s teachings. The lessons detail the instructions for the practice of kriya yoga, including the practice of meditation, concentration, and physical exercises. It also includes teachings regarding diet and nutrition. Lessons are sent to students on a month-by-month basis. The foundation has reprinted the first edition of many of Yogananda’s books, such as Whispers from Eternity, Songs of the Soul, and The Second Coming of Christ (two volumes).

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Amrita Foundation. www.amrita.com.

Yogananda, Paramahansa. Whispers from Eternity: A Book of Unanswered Prayers. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity, 2008.

Ananda

14618 Tyler Foote Rd., Nevada City, CA 95959

The Ananda Church of Self-Realization and the Ananda World Brotherhood Village were founded by J. Donald Walters (b. 1926), also known as Swami Kriyananda. Both institutions are based on the spiritual principles set forth by yoga master, Paramhansa Yogananda (1893–1952), author of Autobiography of a Yogi.

Born of American parents in Romania in 1926, Kriyananda was educated in Romania, Switzerland, England, and the United States. At the age of 22, he became a disciple of Yogananda and lived with him until the master’s death in 1952. As a minister and director of center activities for the organization that Yogananda founded, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), and later as vice president of SRF, he traveled and taught extensively in many countries. In 1962, he says God called upon him to serve his guru’s mission in another capacity. He was separated from SRF to explore and expound, through writing, teaching, and lecturing, the implications of Yogananda’s message for active yoga students and laypersons.

In 1968, Kriyananda founded Ananda Village near Nevada City, California, in response to inner guidance and to the oft uttered public plea of Yogananda: “Cover the earth with world-brotherhood colonies, demonstrating that simplicity of living plus high thinking lead to the greatest happiness.”

Kriyananda has published more than 40 books, including The Path: A Spiritual Autobiography; Rays of the Same Light; and The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda. He has also composed musical works including Christ Lives, an oratorio; a Shakespeare Quartet, composed for two violins, viola, and cello; an Egyptian Suite, written for harp, flute, and viola; and the Divine Romance, a piano sonata.

Ananda Village is situated at 2,600-foot elevation and on 750 acres of wooded and meadow land in the Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California. Members support themselves through a variety of businesses, some of which are privately owned and some of which are owned and operated by the community. Children are educated, from preschool through junior high, at the Ananda Education-for-Life School located within the village. High school students attend public school in Nevada City. The community and its branches includes approximately 600 people from many cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. About 25 nationalities are represented among the residents. A village council is elected annually by Ananda members. The Expanding Light is Ananda’s guest facility, open year-round, offering personal retreats, weeklong or four-week training courses, and special events and holiday programs.

Ananda members practice regular daily meditation using the techniques of kriya yoga, as taught by Yogananda. Resident members are all disciples of Yogananda. The group is also directly involved in a worldwide outreach to those interested in the teachings of Yogananda and his lineage of gurus.

Ananda’s Church, established in 1990 in congregational form, has 2,000 members. The goal of the Ananda Church of Self-Realization is to provide fellowship and inspiration for those who want to find God; this is done through the practice of ancient raja yoga techniques for self-realization that were brought to the West by Yogananda. The church is open for membership for those who follow the teachings of Yogananda.

Membership

In 1997 there were 2,000 church members of Ananda worldwide; 250 people, including children, reside at the main community in Nevada City. Ananda Church has 150 ordained ministers, who serve in Ananda churches in the United States and abroad. Currently Ananda has seven residential spiritual communities located in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento and Palo Alto, California; New Delhi, India, and Assisi, Italy. There is also a newly developed retreat center in Rhode Island. In addition, there are 50 centers and meditation groups throughout the world.

Periodicals

Clarity Magazine • Ananda Sangha Worldwide News

Sources

Ananda: Source for the Teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. www.ananda.org/.

Nordquist, Ted A. Ananda Cooperative Village: A Study in the Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes of a New Religious Community. Uppsala, Sweden: Religionist, 1978.

Walters, J. Donald. Cities of Light: A Plan for this Age. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity, 1987.

———. Cooperative Communities: How to Start Them, and Why. Nevada City, CA: Ananda Publications, 1968.

———. Crises in Modern Thought: Solutions to the Problem of Meaninglessness. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity, 1988.

———. The Path: A Spiritual Autobiography. Nevada City, CA: Ananda Publications, 1977.

———. A Place Called Ananda. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity, 2001.

Ananda Ashrama

Yoga Society of New York, Inc., 13 Sapphire Rd., Monroe, NY 10950

Formerly known as the Intercosmic Center of Spiritual Associations (ICSA) and the International Center for Self-Analysis, Ananda Ashram was founded by Shri Brahamananda Sarasvati (d. 1993), also known as Dr. Rammurti Sriram Mishra, a student of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. As a young yogi, Sarasvati was able to detach his consciousness from the transient world and experience transcendental reality. Upon returning to his physical body, he posed the question “Who am I?” The question was answered through a technique of self-analysis. The ashram seeks to help its adherents through a similar technique of analysis. Its stated goals are 1) to experience one’s self as the cosmic center of vibrations; 2) to establish unity of all beings, especially all nations; 3) to promote global togetherness; 4) to promote a natural way of education, self-discipline and relations; 5) to promote the teaching of sanskrit; 6) to establish modern educational centers; 7) to promote natural, spiritual, and psychological methods of healing; 8) to experience automatic and spontaneous psychosynthesis and psychoanalysis; and 9) to assist the individual in realizing the God-hood that always resides within.

Membership

Not reported. In the United States the main centers are the Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York; the Rochester Ashram; and the New York City yoga center (all sponsored by the Yoga Society of New York) and the Brahmananda Ashram, the teaching center of the Yoga Society of San Francisco in California.

Periodicals

I Am News.

Sources

Ananda Ashrama. www.anandaashram.org.

Coble, Margaret. Self-Abidance. Port Louis, Mauritius: Standard Printing Establishment, 1973.

Mishra, Rammurti. Dynamics of Yoga Mudras and Five Suggestions for Meditation. Pleasant Valley, NY: Kriya Press, 1967.

———. Fundamentals of Yoga. New York: Lancer Books, 1969.

———. Self Analysis and Self Knowledge. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1978.

Mishra, Rammurti S. Isha Upanishad. Dayton, OH: Yoga Society of Dayton, 1962.

Ananda Marga Yoga Society

97-38 42nd Ave., 1-F, Corona, NY 11368

The Ananda Marga Yoga Society was founded in 1955 in Bihar, India, by Prabhat Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (b. 1921). From his early childhood in India, Sarkar attracted thousands of people by his deep love for humanity and by guiding them along the path of self-realization. Adjusting the ancient science of tantra yoga to meet the needs of the present, he developed a scientific and rational spiritual philosophy along with a system of practical disciplines for physical, mental, and spiritual development. Sarkar’s path of tantra yoga begins with initiation, wherein the spiritual aspirant is privately taught the practice of meditation, and is given a two-syllable word or mantra along with a point of concentration, which are particular for that aspirant. In addition, the aspirant is taught the ancient moral codes of yama and niyama and is introduced to the pratika, an ancient tantric emblem with upward and downward triangles representing internal self-realization and external service to humanity. Recognizing him as a spiritually realized master, Sarkar’s followers called him “Shrii Shrii Anandamurtii,” which means “He who attracts others as the embodiment of bliss,” or simply “Baba” (father). The society reports that those who followed his teachings found their lives transformed as they overcame the weaknesses and negative tendencies of the mind and experienced a deep peace and bliss within. Inspired by his example, they turned their energies to serving the society and elevating the oppressed and impoverished humanity.

In the 1960s Sarkar began training missionary monks and nuns to spread his teachings of “self-realization and service to humanity” all over India and later throughout the world. Reflecting the broadness of his vision, Ananda Marga has become a multifaceted organization with various branches, all dedicated to the upliftment of humanity through education, relief, welfare, the arts, ecology, intellectual renaissance, women’s liberation, and a humanistic economy.

For the collective welfare of the entire society, Sarkar propounded a new economic theory that he named PROUT (Progressive Utilization Theory). PROUT states that no individual should be allowed to accumulate any physical wealth without the clear permission of the collective body. The theory also stands for the maximum utilization and rational distribution of all the resources and potentialities of the world (physical, mental, and spiritual) and the creation of a new, humanistic social order of harmony and justice for all.

In 1971 Sarkar was accused by a former follower of having conspired to murder some ex-members. Based upon the follower’s testimony, Sarkar was arrested and jailed awaiting trial. His imprisonment lasted through the national emergency proclaimed by Indira Ghandi in 1975. Ananda Marga was one of the organizations she banned nationally. Meanwhile Ananda Marga had been involved in a number of violent incidents, some aimed at protesting Sarkar’s imprisonment. Sarkar was finally brought to trial, under the conditions of the emergency, and convicted. He was unable to call any witnesses on his behalf. He was finally retried in 1978 and found not guilty. Thereafter he guided the rapid expansion of Ananda Marga worldwide until his death in 1990.

Ananda Marga is now established in more than 60 countries, and together with PROUT has become a force for global social change. Sarkar further created the concept of Neo-Humanism, which means that all created beings are the veritable expressions of the Supreme Consciousness. This concept will vibrate human sentiment in all directions, will touch the innermost recesses of the heart, and lead everyone to the final stage of supreme blessedness. Neo-Humanism will elevate human beings to universalism, which is the cult of love for all created beings of this universe.

On the practical level, Sarkar founded many branches of Ananda Marga, including ERAWS (Education, Relief, and Welfare Society), responsible for creating hundreds of primary and secondary schools worldwide; AMURT (Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team), registered as a United Nations Nongovernmental Organization, which carries out disaster relief work, conducts medical camps, and organizes food and shelter for victims of natural calamities; and RU (Renaissance Universal), dedicated to uplifting the downtrodden through the intellectual study of societal problems and their solutions.

Membership

In 2002 the society reported 5,000 members in the United States and two million worldwide.

Educational Facilities

Ananda Marga Gurukul (University), Ananda Nagar, West Purulia, Bengal, India.

Periodicals

Crimson Dawn • New Renaissance.

Remarks

Acharya Vimalananda, who founded Ananda Marga in the United States, left the organization to found the Yoga House Ashram.

Sources

Ananda Marga. www.anandamarga.org.

PROUT. www.prout.org.

Anandamurti, Shrii Shrii. Baba’s Grace. Denver, CO: Amrit Publications, 1973.

———. The Great Universe: Discourses on Society. Los Altos Hills, CA: Ananda Marga Publications, 1973.

Nandita and Devadatta. Path of Bliss, Ananda Marga Yoga. Wichita, KS: Ananda Marga Publishers, 1971.

The Spiritual Philosophy of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. Denver, CO: Ananda Marga Publications, 1981.

Sarkar, P. R. Idea and Ideology. Calcutta: Acarya Pranavananda Avadhuta, 1978.

Tadbhavananda Avadhuta, Acharya. Glimpses of Prout Philosophy. Copenhagen, Denmark: Central Proutist Publications, 1981.

Anasuya Foundation

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Sri Punitachariji, Girnar Sadhana Ashram, Bhavnath Taleti, Junagadh, Gujarat, India 362004.

The Anasuya Foundation dates to the 1975 experience of Indian teacher Swami Punitachariji (also called “Bapu”) with Lord Dattatreya. The encounter occurred at Mount Girnar, a place sacred to Dattatreya in the Himalayan Mountains. Lord Dattatreya, one of the Hindu deities, is described as the divine essence behind all wisdom, all aspects of god combined. He is Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. He is usually pictured as a being with three heads and six arms with a minimal amount of clothing. He is satguru, and as such is capable of transmitting to others the power to understand life.

Prior to his encounter with Lord Dattatreya, Bapu had no physical guru, but had been a spiritual seeker wandering the forests and river banks for many years. He saw Lord Datta sitting on a rock being showered with flowers by saints and sages of past generations. He was chanting a mantra, “Hari Om Tatsat Jai Guru Datta.” He gave this mantra to Bapu for the uplift of humankind.

It is the belief taught by Bapu that God created the world through sound. For every physical sound there is an equivalent sound on the subtle planes of creation. Thus by repeating certain charged sounds the creative plane is affected and those effects return to the physical plane and recreate it. Chanting the mantra of Lord Dattatreya brings his essence to the person doing the chanting and allows development without the need of an earthly guru.

Toward the end of the 1970s, the message of Bapu was brought to the West by Shantibaba, an early disciple. Centers were soon established in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Membership

Not reported. Centers are located in California, New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Germany, and England.

Sources

Matulay, Emily, and Shantibaba. Spontaneous Meditation. Basalt, CO: Anasuya Publications, 1983. 43 pp.

Anoopam Mission

Shree Swaminarayan Spiritual and Cultural Center, 2120 Clearview Rd., Coplay, PA 18037

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Brahmajyoti, Yogiji Marg, Mogri-388 345 (Via Anand), Gujarat, India.

The Anoopam Mission was founded in 1977 as an independent branch of the Swaminarayan movement, a nineteenth-century Hindu religious movement most successful in the state of Gujarat but now known throughout the world. The Swaminarayan movement was founded by Shree Sahajanand Swami, popularly known as Swaminarayan (1781–1830). He championed the idea of theistic worship in opposition to the popular Vedanta idea of an impersonal divine reality. God manifests on earth through his incarnations and is ever present through his realized saints. The proper response of the believer is devotional service (bhakti yoga). Lord Swaminarayan declared himself to be the early manifestation of Narayan, the Supreme Being, and is so considered by his followers. Swaminarayan was succeeded by a series of leaders: Gunatitanand Swami, Bhagatji Maharaj, Jaga Swami, Krishnaji Ada, Shastriji Maharaj, and Yogiji Maharaj, all of whom espoused the Akshar Purushottam philosophy.

The Anoopam Mission was founded by a young aspirant named Jashbhai, born in Sokhada, Gujarat, in 1940. As a college student he met his guru, his Divine Holiness, Yogiji Maharaj, who called Jashbhai by a term of endearment, “Saheb,” the name by which he has since been known. Saheb began to hold spiritual meetings among his fellow students. With the inspiration and blessing of Yogiji Maharaj, he founded a new order of dedicated young men who were commissioned to become holy men, sadhus, but without taking the traditional garb and vows of the sanyassin, the renounced life. They did not wear the saffron robe nor adopt a life dependent on alms. Instead, they continued their education and afterwards followed their chosen professions (karma yog).

Saheb’s break with the larger AksharPurushottam movement came in 1965. Differences had arisen in the Swaminarayan movement over, among other issues, the place of women in the spiritual order. The conservative leaders in the movement did not want to allow women to take the sannyas vows, and being in control, they excommunicated those who supported the women. Saheb and his followers were viewed to be in the reform camp and were asked to leave. Saheb reorganized under the banner of Anoopam Mission, and eventually settled at Mogri, Gujarat, where the international headquarters of the movement, Brahmajyoti, has been constructed.

Anoopam Mission has rapidly expanded to develop other centers in India and elsewhere around the world. More than 100 sadhus now lead a life of austerity supported by their professional efforts. They have integrated their spiritual and secular life of bhakti and karma yoga to live a life of devotion to God and service to humanity. Charitable contributions of devotees are used to launch and sustain numerous humanitarian activities, comprising educational institutions, medical facilities, and relief organizations.

Followers of the Anoopam Mission began to migrate to the United States in the late 1960s, and their number has grown to well over 5,000. Saheb made his first visit to the West in 1973. He has regularly visited Europe, North America, and Africa since that time.

Membership

In 2008 there were around 50,000 members world wide. A major temple was dedicated in 2003 in Coplay, near Allentown, PA, and several smaller temples and shrines are located around the country.

Sources

Anoopam Mission. www.anoopam-mission.org/.

Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhala (AMOOKOS)

c/o Shri Shyamanatha, PO Box 1425, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163

Alternate Address

Shambhala Nath, PO Box 661182, Los Angeles, CA 90066.

The Adinath Sampradaya is a tantric sect of yogis affiliated with the greater Natha tradition founded by Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, two teachers credited with great magical powers. Matsyendranath (aka Macchagnanath) (c. 900 c.e.) is connected to the foundation of the Kaula school of tantra and the worship (puja) of the Goddess Kali. Gorakhnath (aka Gorakshanatha), the disciple of Matsyendranath, is credited with the foundation of laya or kundalini yoga and hatha yoga, and is revered by many of the Natha subsects as their founder.

Mahendranath (aka Dadaji) (1911–1992), the 23rd Adiguru (chief teacher) of the Adinathas, was born and grew up in London, where in his 20s he met magical teacher Aleister Crowley. After World War II, he traveled to his ancestral home and in Bombay he met his guru in the Natha tradition and initiated as a sadhu (holy man). For the next 30 years Dadaji wandered Southeast Asia as a penniless renunciate. In 1978 Dadaji initiated Lokanath Maharaj into the Adinath Sampradaya (sect), and he returned to England and initiated several people as Adinathas. He also founded AMOOKOS, or the Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhala, in 1982.

Dadaji had come to London in 1981, during which time he oversaw the writing of some papers by Lokanath for an organization that would act as a training ground for would-be magicians. These papers became the basis for AMOOKOS. Subsequently some of the papers were published, and over the next few years, international membership of AMOOKOS grew to over 200 individuals, several of whom started chartered lodges. One prominent member of AMOOKOS is Donald Michael Kraig, who ran a lodge in California in the 1980s.

The original material was presented to individuals for training purposes. Much of the material was and is tantric but presented in the English language for clarity and to avoid Indian words and jargon. Every individual who was initiated also became an initiate of the Adinath sect.

The Adinathas seek ultimate truth. They teach that a human being is already accomplished, a yogi or yogini. Conditioning and other factors prevent this yogic self from shining forth. In each individual, Shiva and Shakti coexist in equipoise. When they unite, the resulting bliss lights up the physio-psychological complex which is the Universe.

Much of the alchemy the Nathas used was based on the proposition that Breath is Time. According to the Nathas, a human being breathes 21,600 times during a 24-hour day. Half of these breaths are Sun (Shiva) breaths and half are Moon (Shakti) breaths. The out-breathing is Ha and the in-breathing, Sa. This is the so-called involuntary mantra Hamsah. One who has united the Solar and Lunar breaths is a Parama-hamsa (beyond Hamsa). The Natha aims to fight conditioning and to become free from Time.

A second aim is svecchacharya, or acting according to one’s own will; in other words, independently. The secret teachings of the Adinathas also included teachings from the left-hand path (in which symbolism is actualized in physical acts) and described in some detail the use of sexuality in the process of seeking truth.

AMOOKOS is in the process of publishing much of Dadaji’s and Lokanath’s writings through Azoth Publishing. Also, from 1977 to 1985, Mike Magee published Azoth Magazine on behalf of the group. There is also a vast literature now available on the history of the Adinathas and the related Indian tantric groups.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Dadaji. The Amoral Way of Wizardry. Stockholm: Tryckt I Sverige, 1992.

MacGee, Mike. Rituals of Kalika. New York: Azoth Publishing, 1985.

———. Tantrik Astrology. Oxford: Mandrake, 1989.

Arsha Vidya Pitham

PO Box 1059, Saylorsburg, PA 18353

Arsha Vidya Pitham was founded in the mid-1980s by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Saraswati emerged in the 1970s as a leading disciple of Swami Chinmayananda and by the early 1980s was the heir apparent of the growing mission. Saraswati became the resident teacher at Sandeepany West, Chinmayananda’s center in northern California. While associated with Chinmayananda, Saraswati taught several 30-month resident courses in Vedanta and Sanskrit. The graduates of these courses have gone on to become teachers themselves.

In 1982, however, after a long reappraisal of the direction of the growing work in America and his own likely future as head of it, Saraswati left Chinmaya Mission West to retain a more simple life as a teacher rather than an organizational director. Many of the people he had taught left the mission to keep their relationship with him.

Saraswati continued to teach and to write and, in 1986, purchased land in Pennsylvania for a new ashram (religious community). A temple to Lord Dakshinamurthi (a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva) was erected and a new 30-month resident course begun. Saraswati also continues his heavy schedule of travel and teaching around the United States and the world.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Arsha Vidya Pitham. www.arshavidya.org.

Saraswati, Swami Dayananda. Meditation at Dawn. The Author, n.d.

Purbamadah Purnamidam. The Author, n.d.

The Sadhana and the Sadhya (The Means and the End). Rishikish, India: Sri Gangadhareswar Trust, 1984.

“Swami Dayananda Renounces Chinmaya Mission West: Changes and Challenges Ahead.” New Saivite World (Fall 1983).

Art of Living Foundation

2401 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009

The Art of Living Foundation is the vehicle for the teaching activity of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Hindu spiritual teacher from Bangalore, India. A precocious child, he memorized the Bhagavad Gita when he was four and began his studies of Indian literature at the age of eight. In the 1980s he began traveling the world teaching the Art of Living course, which emphasizes the uses of the ancient sciences in modern life. A major emphasis of Sri Sri’s teaching is sudarsha kriya, a technique to restore the natural rhythms of the mental, emotional, and physical life. In 1995, the President of India at the World Conference on Yoga gave him the title of “Yoga Shiromani” (Supreme Flowering of Enlightenment).

He established Ved Vignan Maha Vidya Peeth in Bangalore, India, to engage in community services and spreading Vedic knowledge. It established centers across India. In Canada, England, and the United States, work is carried forth under the name “Art of Living” and in Europe as the Association for Inner Growth.

Membership

Not reported. In 1990 there were centers in 23 countries in all parts of the world.

Sources

Art of Living Foundation. www.artofliving.org.

Shankar, Ravi. Bang on the Door: A Collection of Talks. Santa Barbara, CA: Art of Living Foundation, 1990. 101 pp.

Arunachala Ashrama

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Center, 86-06 Edgerton Blvd., Jamaica Heights, NY 11432

Alternate Address

Canadian Headquarters: 1451 Clarence Rd., Bridgetown, NS BOS ICO; International Headquarters: Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 606 603, Tumil Nadu, India.

Inspired by the life and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), Arunachala Ashrama was founded in New York City on December 7, 1966. For five years prior to this, weekly meetings had been conducted by those interested in Ramana Maharshi and his teachings.

At the age of 16, Ramana Maharshi absorbed himself in a singular inner quest for truth that resulted in his total abidance in God, or the “Self,” as he called it. He then left home and resided on the slopes of the Arunachala Mountain, a sacred place of pilgrimage in South India. Living an exceedingly pure life, never touching money, and wearing only a coupina, he remained there for the next 54 years.

His most potent teachings, as attested to by his followers, were imparted in the silence of his presence, which conferred to mature souls the peace of Self-realization. Orally he taught the path of Self-inquiry and Self-surrender. He asked seekers to inquire where from the “I-consciousness” springs, to return to that source, and to abide there. To inquire “Who am I?” is the method of Self-knowledge he most often prescribed. He also taught seekers to throw all the burdens of life upon the Divine and to rest in perfect peace in the heart. He never interfered with outward religious practices or professions. Rather, he taught each person to seek his or her own source, as he believed there is only one source for all, the Supreme Self or God.

Arunachala Ashrama maintains a meditation center and office in New York City and a retreat center in Nova Scotia, Canada. A routine of prayer and meditation is followed at both locations. Arunachala Ashrama is affiliated with Sri Ramanasramam, Ramana Maharshis ashrama in India.

Membership

In 2008 the ashrama had 500 members in two communities and affiliated work in three3 countries, United States, Canada, and India. The ashrama is funded by unsolicited donations and the sale of literature on the life and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Periodicals

The Maharshi.

Sources

Arunachala Ashrama. www.arunachala.org.

Bhagawat, Arunachala Bhakta. In Search of Self. Jamaica Estates, New York: Arunachala Ashrama, n.d.

Mahadevan, T. M. P. Ramana Maharshi, the Sage of Arunchala. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1977.

Osborne, Arthur. Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1970.

— — —, ed. The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1962.

Arya Samaj

Congress of Arya Samajs in North America Ved Niketan, 224 Florence, Troy, MI 48098

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: c/o Sarvdeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Dayanand Bhawan, Asaf All Road, New Delhi, India.

Founded in 1875 in colonial India, the Arya Samaj (noble soul) is a reformist Hindu sect representative of the nineteenth-century Hindu Renaissance that emerged in response to both the British and Christian presence in India. It synthesized Hindu ritual practice with new forms of social organization and interaction. It rejected much of traditional Hinduism (most notably idol worship and related animal sacrifice) and emphasized the role of the Vedas as sacred texts. They advocated ten basic principles: 1) God is the original source of all that is true; 2) God is a single, eternal, fully conscious being; 3) the Vedas are the books of all true knowledge; 4) all people should be ready to accept truth; 5) all acts should be performed with righteousness and duty; 6) Samajis should promote good to the whole world through physical, spiritual, and social progress of all humans; 7) all interactions should be regulated by love and due justice in accordance with the dictates of righteousness; 8) realization and acquisition of knowledge (vidyaa) should be promoted for all; 9) Samajis should strive for the upliftment of all and not be satisfied with only personal development; and 10) while the individual is free to enjoy individual well-being, everyone should dedicate themselves to overall social good. These principles support a program of anti-caste, universalizing, sentiment of social service.

The Arya Samaj also created a purification ceremony (shuddhikaran) for the conversion (or reconversion) of Hindus. Despite the organizations attack on the caste system, they discovered that many of their members have had difficulty forgetting the caste background of new adherents.

The Samaj was founded by Mul Shankara (1824–1883), who was born and raised in an orthodox Brahmin family in Gujarat. In 1848 he took the vows of sannyasin (the renounced life) and assumed the religious name, Dayananda Sarasvati. As the leader of the Arya Samaj, he argued for gender equality and social liberalism (strongly anti-caste). He had an abrasive and polemic style that led to frequent tension with traditional Hidu leaders, though many found his perspective refreshing. He found strong support in the Punjab, where it remains an important movement.

Members of the group spread its universalizing message throughout India and especially in the countries with prominent Indian minorities. In the twentieth century, members moved with the Hindu diaspora to North America though they emerged in strength only in the last quarter of the twentieth century. They have their strongest support in countries such as Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, and Kenya where they have numerous, registered centers for worship. Trinidad is particularly notable for having its first woman to become a Hindu priest (pandit), Indrani Rampersad, a pandita of the Arya Parthinidhi Sabha.

Members of the Arya Samaj began to arrive in North America in measurable number following the change of laws in 1965 that allowed Asians to immigrate and settle. Through the 1980s branch centers were organized and the national organization took shape. By the end of the century, the Arya Samaj had formed branches in almost all the large cities of the United States and Canada; these branches are now related to each other through the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha America. Annually, members from across North America gather for the Arya Maha Sammelan, the main event on the Arya Samaj calendar. The first Sammelan was held in 1991 in Detroit.

Membership

Not reported. There are centers in 12 U.S. states, Canada, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, Bangkok, Singapore, Kenya, Australia, and Fiji.

Sources

Arya Pratinidhi Sabha America. www.aryasamaj.com/.

Gupta, Shiv Kumar. Arya Samaj and the Raj, 1875–1920. New Delhi: Gitanjali Publishing House, 1991.

Lajpat Rai, Lala. The Arya Samaj: An Account of its Origin, Doctrines, and Activities. New Delhi: Reliance Publishing House, 1991.

Yoginder, S. S. “The Fitna of Irtidad: Muslim Missionary Response to the Shuddhi of Arya Samaj in Early Twentieth Century India.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 17: 1 (1997): 65-83.

Aurobindo, Disciples of Sri

c/o Sri Aurobindo Association, PO Box 163237, Sacramento, CA 95816

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Bureau Central, Information Centre of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Cottage Complex, 3, Rangapillai Street, Pondicherry 605001 India; Other United States centers: East West Cultural Center, 12392 Marshall St., Culver City, CA 90230; Wilmot Center, Box 2, Wilmot, WI 53192; Matagiri, HCI Box 98, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457.

Of the many Hindu religious leaders who have arisen in the last century, none remains as enigmatic as Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950). He was given an English education and began to make his mark as a literary figure. When Bengal, his native state, was the center of the independence movement, Aurobindo became a political activist. Thrown in jail on sedition charges, he turned to the Hindu scriptures and began to practice yoga. He had a vision of Krishna (the popular Hindu deity) that changed the course of his life. Released from jail, he soon fled to French-controlled Pondicherry as a refugee and continued his spiritual practice.

The next years were spent in writing, yoga, and the building of an ashram. Most of his famous books appeared in the sixteen years prior to what is referred to as “The Day of the Siddha,” November 24, 1926. On that day he claimed that Krishna descended into the physical, thus preparing for the descent of the Supermind (the Divine) and Ananda (Bliss). His spiritual collaborator was Mira Richards (1878–1973), a French divorcee who met Aurobindo prior to World War I. She built up the ashram and, after 1926, when Aurobindo ceased to see people, she became the contact between him and his disciples. The “Mother,” as she is known, had seen Aurobindo in her dreams before she came to Pondicherry in 1914. From 1950 to her death in 1973, she sustained the work of transformation.

Aurobindo’s thought has often been compared with that of Teilhard de Chardin, as it was an evolutionary philosophy based upon man’s growth in consciousness both individually and collectively. God—pure existence, will force—draws man to himself. Creation is the result of his “descent” and the evolution is as much a divine work as man’s progress. It is believed that the supermental consciousness and its manifestation in 1956 will eventually bring about the evolutionary change from “man” to “superman.”

The means to achieve the life divine is yoga. Aurobindo taught what is termed “integral yoga,” based in part on vedenta and tantra. It includes the traditional forms of yoga and psychology of the internal psychic self, but worked primarily by a descent of the shakti into the mind.

In India, the Sri Aurobindo Society has established an international section to service centers outside of the country. In the United States, a number of more-orless independent centers have arisen. Among the important centers are Matagiri in Mt. Tremper, New York, and Lotus Light in Wilmot, Wisconsin. In California, three prominent centers have survived for years. These include the East-West Cultural Center, founded by Judith Tyberg in 1953; the Cultural Integration Fellowship, founded by Haridas Chaudhuri; and the Atmaniketan Ashram, a residence center in Pomona, California. There are numerous smaller centers.

International headquarters remain at the ashram in Pondicherry. In 1972 the ashram published a 30-volume centenary edition of Aurobindo’s works later superceded by a 20-volume set. More recently the Institute for Evolutionary Research in Mt. Vernon, Washington, has released a 13-volume set of the Mother’s Agenda, 1951–1973.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Collaboration.

Sources

Sri Aurobindo Association. www.collaboration.org/.

Chaudhuri, Haridas. The Evolution of Integral Consciousness. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1977.

Donnelly, Morwenna. Founding the Life Divine. Lower Lake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1976.

Kluback, William. Sri Aurobindo Ghose: The Dweller in the Lands of Silence. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.

McDermott, Robert, ed. The Essential Aurobindo. New York: Schocken Books, 1973.

———. Six Pillars. Chambersburg, PA: Wilson Books, 1974.

Minor, Robert N. Sri Aurobindo: The Perfect and the Good. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1978.

Minor, Robert N. The Religious, the Spiritual, and the Secular: Auroville and Secular India. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Prasad, Narayan. Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1968.

Badarikashrama

15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro, CA 94578

Badarikashrama is a spiritual and cultural center that promotes a life of dedicated service based upon Vedic wisdom. Established in 1983, the ashrama conducts three worship services daily, Sunday school, Hindu rites for family occasions, and festival celebrations. It also offers instruction in music, philosophy, literature, yoga, Sanskrit, meditation, and puja (techniques of worship). Ongoing activities include concerts, festivals, retreats, weekend programs and children’s programs.

Badarikashrama’s work is inspired by the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. It was established by Swami Omkarananda, who as a young seeker in India came into contact with the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. He came to the United States in 1970 and after several years of work returned to India where he took his final vows of sannyasa from Mandaleswara Sri Swami Vidyananda Giri at Kailashashrama in Rishikish. He returned to the United States and founded Badarikashrama. Swami Omkarananda combines the renounced life with a life of service. He makes himself available for spiritual counseling, satsanga, and guidance in spiritual and cultural issues. He offers home worship throughout California and promotes Vedic teachings throughout the United States.

In 1984 an associate branch of Badarikashrama was begun in Madihalli, Karnataka, India. Ongoing activities there include evening devotional singing (kirtan), weekly music and Sanskrit classes, and yoga training camps. There is also an ayurvedic herbal garden. Accomodations are provided for individuals and groups wishing to visit Madihalli ashrama for short and long-term spiritual retreats. At present, a variety of programs are being developed including local community training in health and sanitation, an English tutorial service, provisions of nutritional supplements, and the establishment of a resident school. It continues to serve as a place for the residence and training of women and men interested in leading a monastic life of service. Swami Mangalananda currently directs the program at Madihalli.

Membership

In 1997 the ashrama reported 900 adherents at its American center and an additional 1,500 at its Indian center in Madihalli.

Periodicals

Badarikashrama Sandesha • Sandesha.

Sources

Badarikashrama. www.badarikashrama.org/.

Barry Long Foundation International

Acorn Cottage, 218 Clove Rd., Salisbury Mills, NY 12577

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: PO Box 838, Billinudgel, NSW 2483, Australia.

Barry Long was a spiritual teacher who emerged in Australia in the 1970s and died in 2003. In 1965 Long had a realization of immortality or “mystic death,” the first of a series that led to his realization of the master consciousness.

Long teaches that there is no duality between himself and the power. He eschews most religious forms and emphasizes the living of truth. His teachings are introduced through what is termed the “Course in Being.” He also has authored books on self-discovery, meditation, and self-knowledge.

Membership

Not reported. There are centers of the foundation in England, Finland, Netherlands, Australia, and United States. It does not have formal membership.

Sources

Barry Long Foundation International. www.barrylong.org

Long, Barry. Barry Long’s Journal. Australia: Barry Long Books, 1994.

———. Behind Life and Death; The Boundless Reality. Australia: Barry Long Books, 2008.

Bhakti Marga Foundation

55 Marbella, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270

Bhakti Marga (literally, the path of devotion to god) is a spiritual society founded in 2004 as a teaching venue for Sri Swami Vishwananda. Bhakti Marga seeks to make God the focal point of one’s life, to the point that each person becomes one with the love and omnipresence of God. It advocates the practices of prayer, meditation, repeating the divine names (japa yoga), studying holy scriptures (the Vedas), self-reflection, and selfless service as ways to become become more aware of God’s presence.

Swami Vishwananda (b. 1978) was born on Mauritius. After completing his schooling he became a full-time spiritual teacher and traveled internationally. In 2001 Swami Vishwananda set up a chapel for the Holy Mother in Mauritius adjacent to a temple dedicated to the Indian saint Sri Shirdi Sai Baba. This was the first of his centers; others were established in Germany (2004) and South Africa (2006). He also developed followings in the United Kingdom, Poland, and the United States.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Bhakti Marga Foundation. www.vishwananda.us/.

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation

PO Box 256, Tomales, CA 94971

The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, founded by Indian teacher Eknath Easwaran in 1961, offers programs and publications presenting an Eight-Point Program of meditation and allied living skills. The center considers its approach as nondenominational, nonsectarian, and free from dogma and ritual, and the organization is not affiliated with any religious group or movement. Easwaran was a Professor of English at the University of Nagpur, India, when he came to the United States on the Fulbright exchange program in 1959. He has been writing and offering instruction in meditation and world mysticism in the San Francisco Bay Area regularly since 1965. The interest in meditation he encountered while at the University of California-Berkeley prompted him to find the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. His class at the university in 1967 is believed to be the first academic course on meditation taught for credit on a major American campus.

The basis of the Eight-Point Program is meditation while the other points integrate meditation with daily life. The program includes: 1) Meditation: Going slowly and silently, in the mind, through inspirational passages from the world’s great religions, for half-an-hour each morning. (Because of its universality, everyone is encouraged to begin with the Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace…”). 2) Mantram: Silent repetition in the mind of a holy name, mantram, or “prayer word” chosen from those hallowed by the world’s great religions (the Jesus Prayer, Barukh attah Adonai, Allahu akbar, Om mani padme hum, Rama, Rama, etc.) whenever possible during the rest of the day. 3) Slowing Down: Simplifying activities and priorities so as to resist the pressure to hurry through the day. 4) One-Pointed Attention: Giving complete concentration to whatever one does. 5) Training the Senses: Undoing conditioned habits and learning to enjoy what is beneficial. 6) Putting Others First: Gaining freedom from self-centered thinking and behavior by focusing attention on the needs of the whole instead of dwelling on ourselves. 7) Spiritual Companionship: Spending time regularly with others who are following the same Eight-Point Program, for mutual inspiration and support. 8) Reading the Mystics: Filling the mind with inspiration from writings by and about the world’s great spiritual figures and from the scriptures of all religions.

The Blue Mountain Center offers weekend and weeklong retreats in northern California near its headquarters in Tomales and one-day and weekend retreats at various sites around the country. Nilgiri Press, the center’s publishing branch, publishes books and tapes on meditation and world mysticism. Eknath Easwaran has written 23 books that have been translated in 15 languages, in addition to translations of Indian scriptural classics (the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Dhammapada) and an anthology of passages for meditation from the world’s major religions, God Make the Rivers to Flow.

Membership

The Blue Mountain Center is not a membership organization; however, approximately 25,000 people receive its newsletter.

Periodicals

Blue Mountain.

Sources

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. www.easwaran.org/.

Easwaran, Eknath. The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living. Berkeley, CA: Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, 1975.

———. Dialogue with Death. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1981.

———. Like a Thousand Suns. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1979.

———. A Man to Match His Mountains. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1984.

———. The Mantram Handbook. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1977.

The Supreme Ambition. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1982.

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University

46 S. Middle Neck Rd., Great Neck, NY 11021

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Post Office 3, Box 2, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India 307501; Canadian Headquarters: 897 College St., Toronto, ON, Canada M6H 1A1.

The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University was founded in Karachi in 1936. Over a period of several months, the founder, Dada Lekhraj, who was a prosperous businessman, felt the need to invest more time in quiet reflection and solitude. Then one day, while in a meditative state, he felt a warm glow of energy surrounding him, filling him with light and exposing him to a series of powerful visions. These gave new insights into the innate qualities of the human soul, revealing the mysterious entity of God and explaining the process of world transformation. The intensity of the message they conveyed was such that Dada Lekhraj, now known as Brahma Baba, felt impelled to wind up his business and devote himself to understanding the significance and application of this revealed knowledge. Brahma Baba left his body in 1969 at the age of 93 after entrusting leadership of the university to a group of young women. The university continues to be administered by women to the present day.

The program of the Brahma Kumaris is centered upon the practice of Raja Yoga, a method of meditation that develops a clear understanding of the relationship between soul and matter, mind and body, and the interplay between soul, God, and the material world. No mantras or special postures are required. Students gradually gain experience in calming a busy mind, creating positive thoughts, and forming a connection with God as the ultimate source of peace and happiness.

Membership

As of 2007, the Brahma Kumaris is located in over 100 countries with more than 5,000 centers and 800,000 regular members or “students.” The United States has centers in New York, Boston, Austin, Milpitas, Sacramento, Washington (DC), Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seal Beach, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa, and Honolulu. The centers in Canada are located in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec, and Winnipeg.

Educational Facilities

Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center.

Periodicals

The World Renewal • Purity Heart and Soul • Gyanamrit

Sources

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. www.bkwsu.com.

Brahma Baba—The Corporeal Medium of Shiva Baba. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, n.d.

Illustrations on Raja Yoga. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1975.

Living Values: A Guidebook. London: Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, 1995. 110 pp.

Moral Values, Attitudes and Moods. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1975.

Visions of a Better World London. Brahma Kumars World Spiritual University, 1994. 205 pp.

The Way and Goal of Raja Yoga. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1975.

Chinmaya Mission West

PO Box 129, Piercy, CA 95587

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Powai Park Dr., Mumbai, 400072 India.

Swami Chinmayananda is an independent teacher of Vedanta who in 1949 was initiated into sannyas, the renounced life, by Swami Sivananda Saraswati at Rishikish, India. With Sivananda’s blessing, Chinmayananda traveled into the Himalayan Mountains to Uttar Kasi to study with a learned teacher, Swami Tapovanam, known for his knowledge of the Hindu scriptures. He studied with Tapovanam for several years. In 1951 he began to share his knowledge with the public. As people responded the Chinmaya Mission evolved.

Chinmayananda first came to North America in the 1960s. As he periodically toured the country, groups of disciples came into existence. In 1975 Chinmaya Mission West was incorporated. Once formed, assisted by Chinmayananda’s charismatic personality and drive, the Mission spread rapidly.

Chinmaya Mission has been distinguished both by its Vedantic teachings and its emphasis on knowledge of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, the two main Hindu scriptures. Chinmayananda has authored numerous books, including commentaries on the Gita and Upanishads, and his discourses are available on video.

Membership

In 2008 there were 250 centers in India and 50 outside India, including many in the United States. These are affiliated centers in India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and various locations across Europe.

Educational Facilities

Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Mumbai, India.

Periodicals

Mananam • Mananam Quarterly Journal CMW Newsletter.

Sources

Chinmaya Dig Vijaya: H. H. Swami Chinmayananda’s 1991 Summer Tour of the Americas. Piercy, CA: Chinmaya Mission West,1991.

Chinmaya Mission West. www.chinmaya.org.

Chinmayananda, Swami. Kindle Life. Madras: Chinmaya Publications Trust, n.d.

———. A Manual for Self-Unfoldment. Napa, CA: Chinmaya Publication (West), 1975.

———. Meditation (Hasten Slowly). Napa, CA: Family Press, 1974.

———. The Way to Self-Perfection. Napa, CA: Chinmaya Publications (West), 1976.

Church of the Christian Spiritual Alliance (CSA)

Lake Rabun Rd., PO Box 7, Lakemont, GA 30552-0001

The Church of the Christian Spiritual Alliance (CSA) was founded in 1962 by H. Edwin O’Neal, a Baptist; his wife, Lois O’Neal, an advocate of Religious Science; and William Arnold Lapp, a Unitarian. Its stated purpose was “to teach the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man as interpreted in the light of modern-day experience.” It emerged as a highly eclectic organization that combined Christian, psychic, and Eastern insights. It absorbed Orion, a popular independent occult monthly founded by Ural R. Murphy of Charlotte, North Carolina, and continues its publication, now as an annual.

In the late 1960s the church was joined by Roy Eugene Davis, a former student of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda and leader of the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) center in Phoenix, Arizona. Davis had left SRF and formed New Life Worldwide. He brought his organization and its periodical (which became Truth Journal) into CSA. Davis’s traveling and speaking gave CSA a national audience.

CSA took a decisive turn in 1977 when O’Neal resigned as chairman of the board and president of the publishing complex and was replaced by Davis. The focus of CSA has in the ensuing years been that of Davis, who has established the church as part of the larger New Age movement with its concerns of astrology, holistic health, and meditation. The yoga teachings of Yogananda as presented through Davis have become the central core of the teachings. Davis keeps a year-round schedule of seminars around the United States. His ecumenical approach to religion is in keeping with the New Age emphases.

The educational arm of the church is the Center for Spiritual Awareness at Lakemont, Georgia. Meditation seminars are offered several times per year at the headquarters retreat center, focusing on teachings of the kriya yoga tradition. The Shrine of All Faiths Meditation Temple is part of the headquarters complex.

Membership

In 1991 the alliance reported 25 centers and meditation groups in the United States and five in foreign countries—Canada, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa.

Periodicals

Truth Journal • Orion.

Sources

Center for Spiritual Awareness. www.csa-davis.org.

Davis, Roy Eugene. An Easy Guide to Meditation. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1978.

———. God Has Given Us Every Good Thing. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1986.

———. The Path of Soul Liberation. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1975.

———. The Teachings of the Masters of Perfection. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1979.

———. The Way of the Initiate. St. Petersburg, FL: New Life World-Wide, 1968.

———. Yoga-Darshana. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1976.

Cross and the Lotus

c/o Cross and the Lotus Publishing, For information: [email protected], Seattle, WA

The Cross and the Lotus continue the work of Rev. Mother Yogacharya Hamilton (1904–1991), a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), the founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Hamilton initially met Yogananda in 1925. She later was ordained by him and became one of only six persons—and the only woman—to whom he gave the title yogacharya (teacher, or master of yoga). He also commissioned her to initiate others into Kriya Yoga, the practice he had brought to the west that is passed from guru to chela (student) confidentially.

After Yogananda’s death, Hamilton developed a relationship with Swami Ramdas and went to live in India at his ashram. She credited him with helping her to finally attain the complete realization of God. After returning to her hometown, Seattle, Washington, to resume teaching, in 1974 she met David R. Hickenbottom, who became her primary student. She ordained him in 1984 and subsequently gave him the title yogacharya. He has continued her work since her death in 1991.

The work of the Cross and the Lotus is based in Seattle and the surrounding region. The Cross and the Lotus publishing company issues a quarterly journal.

Membership

Not reported. There are groups in Seattle and Mount Vernon, Washington, and in Vancouver and Victoria, British Colombia.

Periodicals

The Cross and the Lotus Journal (archives available online).

Sources

The Cross and the Lotus Publishing. www.crossandlotus.com/.

Moniteau Rd, RD 2, Box 2084, Sunbury, PA 16061

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Ashrama, Datta Peetam, Mysore Ooty Rd., 570 004, India.

Datta Yoga Center is an outpost of the international movement Avadhoota Datta Peetham built around His Holiness Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji. Swamiji was born in Mekedati Village, Karnataka, in southern India. He became a postman, although as a youth he had been religiously inclined and a devoted practitioner of yoga. He became known for his healing powers and his ability to work miracles. During his early adulthood, Swamiji began to gather a following, and in 1966 he founded a spiritual center that was located in Mysore, India. He traveled widely around India and in the 1970s began to travel in Europe. He also traveled to the United States and the Caribbean, opening the first United States center in 1986 in Pennsylvania.

Swamiji is considered by followers to be an avadhuta (liberated one), in the tradition of Lord Dattatreya. His teachings are multifaceted and described as “universal and unconstrained by religious dogma.” He teaches kriya yoga as a method to realize the One Reality as referred to in the teachings of advaita vedanta. The centers serve as temples at which pujas and homas (worship services) are performed. Always musically inclined, Swamiji has composed numerous bhajans (spiritual songs) and instrumental meditation music that are a major part of the gatherings of devotees. He is an advocate of ayurvedic medicine and sponsors a hospital for the underprivileged in India.

Membership

The Center is not a membership organization. There are several hundred devotees (as of 1992) in the United States. The center has constructed two temples, one in Louisiana and the other in Pennsylvania, that devotees are encouraged to visit. Associated centers can also be found in Malaysia, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Trinidad.

Periodicals

Bhakti Mala • Datta Mala.

Sources

Datta Yoga Center. www.dycusa.org.

Ganapati Sachchidananda, Swami. Dattatreya the Absolute. Trinidad: Dattatreya Yoga Centre, 1984.

———. Forty-two Stories. Trinidad: Dattatreya Gyana Bodha Sabha, 1984.

———. Insight into Spiritual Music. Mysore, India: Author, n.d.

———. Sri Dattatreya Laghu Puja Kalpa. Mysore, India: Author, 1986.

H. H. Sri Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji: A Rare Jewel in the Spiritual Galaxy of Modern Times. Mysore, India: Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Trust, n.d.

Swamiji, Ganapati Sachchidananda. Insight into Spiritual Music. Mysore, India: Author, n.d.

Deva Foundation

336 S Doheny Dr., No. 7, Beverly Hills, CA 90211

The Deva Foundation was founded in Sweden in the early 1980s by Dr. Deva Maharaj (1948), a high caste Hindu and doctor of ayurveda and homeopathic medicine. Before leaving India, he had studied yoga and meditation at the Yoga Research Hospital in New Delhi, India. He came to the United States in the mid-1980s and established headquarters in Beverly Hills, California. The stated aim of the foundation is to bridge the gap between Western psychology and Eastern philosophy. It offers members a wide variety of approaches drawn from both Eastern and Western techniques for personal growth, transformation, and enlightenment. These include various health classes, self-hypnosis, nutrition, acupressure, massage, and shaktipat, the awakening of the kundalini, the latent energy believed to rest at the base of the spine. Members may also participate in the activities of the Tantra House operated by the foundation, an educational center that teaches the esoteric secrets of sexuality and spirituality.

Deva travels widely and has become a radio and television personality because of his clairvoyant abilities.

Membership

In 1987 the foundation reported two centers in the United States and one in Canada. There were approximately 100 members in the United States and 1,000 members internationally.

Educational Facilities

Yoga Center, New Delhi, India.

Devatma Shakti Society

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Nawali, Dahisar PO vía Mumbai, Mumbai Panver Rd., Distrit – Thame, 400 612, Maharashtra, India.

The Devatma Shakti Society was formed in 1976 by Swami Shivom Tirth (b. 1924) for the practice of the shaktipat system of yoga, a system revived by Swami Gangadhar Tirth Maharaj. Little is known of this swami; he lived in solitude and initiated only one disciple, Kali Kishore Gangopadhyay, who became known as Swami Narayan Tirth Dev Maharaj (1870–1935). He founded a meditation center in Madaripur, Faridpur, India, and passed his succession to Shri Yoganandaji Maharaj (d.1959). Yoganandaji established an ashram in Rishikish. He initiated Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj (d.1969) who established the Narayan Kuti Sanyas Ashram at Dewas.

Swami Shivom Tirth was initiated by Vishnu Tirth in 1959 and took the vows of the sannyasin (the renounced life) in 1963. During the 1970s Shivom Tirth began to propagate the shaktipat system outside of India, first in Europe and Southeast Asia and then in America. The first ashram in North America was established in central Texas. Shivom Tirth occasionally visits America on lecture tours, visiting his disciples across the United States.

Shaktipat is the descent of the power of the guru upon the disciple, thus activating the disciple’s own latent kundalini shakti, often pictured as a serpent sleeping coiled at the base of the spine. The awakening of the energy and its movement up the spinal column to the top of the head produces enlightenment. This way to enlightenment is through the guru’s grace and bypasses the years of effort and discipline necessary in other forms of yoga.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Devatma Shakti Society. www.par.org.ar/shaktipat/shivom.htm.

Tirth, Shivam. A Guide to Shaktipat. Paige, TX: Devatma Shakti Society, 1985.

Devi Mandir

5950 Hwy. 128, Napa, CA 94558-9632

Devi Mandir, also called the Temple of the Divine Mother, is a Hindu center established in a town in the San Francisco Bay Area by two people known by their religious names, Shree Maa and Swami Satyananda. Swami Satyananda is an American who in the 1960s traveled to India as a seeker of spiritual enlightenment. He remained there, receiving spiritual nurture from various teachers and activities until meeting Shree Maa in the 1980s. Shree Maa was born in Assam, India, and began to devote her life to spiritual practice as a teenager. She received many visions and became known throughout India as a spiritual teacher. She heads the Sanatan Dharma Societies in India with centers at Calcutta, Belur, and Gauhati. After their meeting, the pair became inseparable, and Swami Satynanda traveled with Maa as she held celebrations of worship. The two came to California in the mid-1980s and established the Devi Mandir as a center in Moraga (later relocated to Martinez and then to Napa) for the performance of the ancient Vedic fire worship.

The Devi Mandir is a traditional Hindu temple at which an annual round of Hindu festivals are celebrated. In the altar area, statues of many of the primary deities of Hinduism have been installed, including Shiva and Durga, Brahma and Saraswati, Vishnu and Lakshmi, Kali, and many others. Puja (worship) is offered daily. For three years at the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, Shree Maa and Swami Satyananda devoted themselves to 1,000 days of continuous worship, during which neither left the temple. During this period they tended the fire inside the temple, making sure that it did not die out.

Shree Maa promotes devotion to the deities through the performance of puja (worship). Swami Satyananda has written and translated several books to assist attendees at the temple in their worship, including a beginner’s guide to Sri Siva Puja. Shree Maa also promotes a behavior code that grows out of the devoted life. She advises attendees at the temple to be true, simple, and free. They should take refuge in God, cultivate wisdom, develop discrimination (or discernment), and allow their actions to manifest love. She notes that spirituality is simple, noting the saying of a sage—that God is everywhere and thus if one hurts any form, he is hurting himself. In like measure, if he raises any form to a higher level, he elevates himself.

Membership

Not reported. The temple serves both Indian Americans and American converts to Hinduism.

Sources

Devi Mandir. www.shreemaa.org/drupal/.

Johnsen, Linda. Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India. St. Paul, MN: Yes International Publishers, 1994. 128 pp.

Satya Nanda, Swami, trans. Kali Dhyanam: Meditation on Maha Kali and the Adya Stotram. Martinez, CA: Devi Mandir, 1990. 28 pp.

———. Saty Narayan Katha: The Vow to Speak and Act in Truth. Martinez, CA: Devi Mandir, 1990. 16 pp.

———. Sri Siva Puja: Beginner. Martinez, CA: Devi Mandir, 1990. 40 pp.

Dhyanyoga Centers

PO Box 3194, Antioch, CA 94531

Indian yoga teacher Dhyanyogi Mahant Madhusudandasji Maharaj left home as a child of 13 to seek enlightenment. He spent the next 40 years as a wandering student, during which time he met and worked with his guru whom he discovered at Mt. Abu in Rajasthan State in northern India. From his guru he received shaktipat, a transmission of power believed to release the latent power of kundalini, pictured as residing at the base of the spine. The emergence of that power and the experience of its traveling up the spine to the crown of the head is considered by many Hindu groups to be the means of enlightenment.

In 1962 Dhyanyogi Madhusudandasji ceased his wanderings and began to teach. He established an ashram at Bandhvadi, Gujurat, the first of several in western India. He authored two books, Message to Disciples and Light on Meditation. During the 1970s followers moved to England and the United States. He made his first visit to his Western disciples in 1976 and began to build a following among American converts.

Dhyanyogi Madhusudandasji’s teachings emphasize meditation (dhyan), or raja yoga, and kundalini yoga. The center offers shaktipat to sadhuks (students). As the kundalini awakens the student is open to the guru’s continuing influence and is able to shed past encumbrances and to move on the path of enlightenment. After Madhusudandasji’s death in 1994, his teachings continued through his “spiritual heir,” Shri Anandi Ma.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Monthly newsletter.

Sources

Dhyanyoga Centers. www.dyc.org.

Madhusudandasji, Dhyanyogi. Brahmanada: Sound, Mantra and Power. Pasadena, CA: Dhyanyoga Centers, 1979.

———. Death, Dying and Beyond. Pasadena, CA: Dhyanyoga Centers, 1979.

———. Light on Meditation. Los Angeles, CA: 1978.

———. Message to Disciples. Bombay: Shri Dhyanyogi Mandal, 1968.

———. Shakti, Hidden Treasure of Power. Pasadena, CA: Dyanyoga Centers, 1979.

Divine Love Mission

c/o Kripalu Bhavanam, 17409 Durbin Park Rd., Edmond, OK 73003

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Kripalu Kuteer, Village & Post Mangarh, District Pratapgarh, UP, India. • Canadian Headquarters: Sadhana Mandir, 30 Nantucket Blvd., Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

The Divine Love Mission grew out of the work of the devotion inspired by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (born in 1922 as Ram Kripalu Tripathi in Mangarth, near Allahabad, India). After completing his formal education, at the age of 16 he found his way to Vrindavan and the next year emerged as a guru known affectionately as Shri Maharaj Ji. He is remembered for leading devotees in a six-month continuous chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra when he was only 17 years old. He was 34 years old when given the title “Jagadguru”(world-teacher) on January 14, 1957, by the Kashi Vidvat Parishad, a group of Hindu scholars. As such, he is seen by his followers to stand in a lineage that includes Jagadguru Shankaracharya, Jagadguru Nimbarkacharya, Jagadguru Ramanujacharya, and Jagadguru Madhavacharya (all well-known figures from Hindu history).

The teachings of Shri Maharaj Ji were first spread in America by Siddheshvari Devi (Didi Ji). She led in the founding of the American branch of the Divine Love Mission in 1997. The mission teaches the bhakti yoga tradition of India, similar to the Krishna devotion made popular by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON; see separate entry), but completely independent of that organization. Shri Maharaj Ji has taught that, “The essence of all doctrines is to love Lord Krishna, the Supreme Master, and to meditate on His Divine Form with an increasing desire to serve Him. This is the true ultimate knowledge.” He has summarized the tradition in his book of poems, Bhakti Shatak: Hundred Gems of Divine Love, posted on the Internet. He has also authored a number of books, English translations of which are being published by the mission.

Membership

Not reported. The mission operates out of three main centers in India, three in the United States (Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan), and one in Canada.

Dynastic Kriya Yoga

For information: [email protected]

Shibendu Lahiri (b. 1939), the great grandson of Yogi Lahiri Mahasaya (1828–1895), taught Kriya Yoga in India for many years, but in the 1990s he began to spread the teachings and techniques of Kriya Yoga throughout Europe and North America. Lahiri Mahasaya was introduced to the west through the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), and the kriya yoga teachings that he brought to North America have been perpetuated by his students such as Daya Maya, Swami Kriyananda, and Roy Eugene Davis. Dynastic Kriya Yoga (also called Purna Kriya Yoga) offers the same teachings that Self-Realization Fellowship, Ananda, and the Center of Spiritual Awareness offer, presenting them directly from a physical descendant of Lahiri Mahasaya.

In 1999 Shibendi Lahiri toured the United States and was received so well that annual tours followed in subsequent years. Since then small groups of Dynastic Kriya Yoga practitioners have appeared, but they remain largely invisible in the United States because they have not opened stable centers and have produced little literature. Information on their gatherings is word-of-mouth or via impermanent Internet announcements, and contact with the group is by email and telephone. The largest groups are on the West Coast—Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Dynastic Kriya Yoga. www.purnakriya.com/index.html; www.kriyayogalahiri.com/.

EnlightenNext

EnlightenNext, PO Box 2360, Lenox, MA 01240

EnlightenNext was founded in the late 1980s by Andrew Cohen (b. 1955). It was formerly known as the Moksha Foundation (California) from 1988 to1999 and the Impersonal Enlightenment Fellowship from 1999 to 2005. Cohen had been raised in a somewhat secular Jewish home. As a teenager, following the death of his father, he moved to Rome to live with his mother. There, at the age of 16, he experienced an extraordinary event of expanded consciousness that initiated a quest in search of someone who could explain the strange occurrence. Cohen’s search led him to Swami Hariharananda Giri (a master of kriya yoga) and to the practice of martial arts and Zen meditation. Then in 1986, while in India, Cohen met Harivansh Lal Poonja, a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi and his teachings of advaita vedanta. Poonja taught that human beings are in reality pure consciousness in the absolute, here and now, always free. Since human beings are already free, there is no need to search for spiritual freedom, merely realize it.

Cohen felt he immediately understood Poonja’s message and after only a short time with him, he left his presence to begin teaching, first in Lucknow, India, and then in England. Early in 1987 he taught classes in Holland and Israel and the following year returned to the United States. His work was centered upon a group that began to form in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1989 he moved his work to Marin County, California, where a group of his closest disciples established an intensive communal life that attempted to live out the implication of the freedom they had begun to realize. The group is informally known as the Sangha. That same year Cohen published his first book, My Master is My Self, a volume that includes his diary about meeting with and letters to his guru.

Meanwhile, some problems began to become apparent between himself and Poonjaji (the name used affectionately by Poonja’s close followers). As Cohen began to teach, he had come to understand that the initial Enlightenment experience served to reveal the Absolute and gave the student a glimpse of his/her potential for liberation. The purpose of the community he formed was to learn to live in such a way that their lives express the Enlightenment. To the contrary, Poonjaji had taught that Oneness had nothing to do with anything manifested in human life. Cohen came to feel that he had surpassed his teacher, a realization he asserts in his second book, Autobiography of an Awakening (1992). He now teaches independently of Poonjaji.

Membership

Not reported. As of 2008 EnlightenNext had two centers in Massachusetts, one in New York, six in Europe, and one each in Israel and India, with regional groups in the United States, Germany, and Australia.

Periodicals

What Is Enlightenment?

Sources

EnlightenNext. www.enlightennext.org.

Cohen, Andrew. Autobiography of an Awakening. Corte Madera: Moksha Foundation, 1992.

———. My Master Is My Self. Moksha Foundation, 1989.

Fivefold Path Inc.

278 N White Oak Dr., Madison, VA 22727

Fivefold Path Inc. was founded in Madison, Virginia, in 1973 by Vasant Paranjpe, who had received a divine command to come to the United States and teach kriya yoga, the Fivefold Path. From the Virginia headquarters, Paranjpe began to visit and teach in neighboring cities—Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Riverton, New Jersey. A semimonthly periodical was begun, and a fire temple consecrated at Param Dham, the name given the headquarters.

The Fivefold Path is a system of kriya yoga which begins with purification of the atmosphere as a step leading to the purification of the mind. Its steps include the following: (1) Agnihotra, a fire ceremony done at sunrise and sunset each day; (2) Daan, sharing one’s assets in a spirit of humility; (3) Tapa, self-discipline; (4) Karma, right action; and (5) Swadhyaya, self-study. The Fivefold Path, derived from the teachings of the Vedas, is also called the Satya Dharma (Eternal Religion). It respects all avatars and divine messengers and makes no distinction between them. Anyone of any religion may learn the teachings of the Fivefold Path. Vasant has stated that he has come to fulfill the biblical prophecy of Daniel 8:26: “This vision about the evening and morning sacrifices which has been explained to you (i.e., Agnihotra) will come true. But keep it secret now, because it will be a long time before it does come true” (The Good News Bible translation).

Membership

Fivefold Path Inc. is not a membership organization. As of 1995, the Fivefold Path had spread to all continents, and its literature has been translated into several languages.

Periodicals

Satsang.

Sources

Fivefold Path Inc. www.agnihotra.org.

Paranjpe, Vasant V. Grace Alone. Madison, VA: Fivefold Path, 1971.

———. Homa Farming, Our Last Hope. Madison, VA: Fivefold Path, 1986.

———. Homa Therapy: Our Last Chance. Madison, VA: Fivefold Path, 1989. 79 pp.

———. Light towards Divine Path. N.p., n.d. 57 pp.

———. Ten Commandments of Parama Sadguru. Randallstown, MD: Agnihotra Press, 1976.

Foundation of Revelation

59 Scott St., San Francisco, CA 94117

The Foundation of Revelation was formed in 1970 in San Francisco by persons who recognized the existence of perfect knowledge and practical omnipotence in the form of a “beggar” then living in the village of Gorkhara near Calcutta, India. The man had been born of a ruling Brahmin family in 1913 and spent his early years as an avid student of various forms of modern knowledge. On the eve of June 14, 1966, he perceived that the illusions of these limited and disintegrating forms of modern knowledge were burned down by Agni, the fire of knowledge, and on September 19, 1966, the convergence of persisting cosmic existence, the luminous nature of consciousness, was concentrated in the person of this Yogi as Siva, the Destroyer. Thus 1966 is the first year of a new era of Siva Kalpa (meaning the period of time of Lord Siva’s omnipotent imagination).

To the foundation, Siva is the creator of conscious life and the destroyer of ignorance, whose pure love of knowledge moves the forms of ego into intensifying contradictions of their own divisive natures to the point of spontaneous recoil toward the synthesis of body, life, and mind. He is considered the most accessible of powers. He never refused the request of a supplicant, perhaps his most dangerous attribute, and he surrounds himself with those from the extremes of the social spectrum whose natural penchant for truth, the power of self-expression, and the ability to manifest same, holds them apart from the world of mediocrity, always gravitating to the heights or depths of existence in the pull toward ultimate perfection.

The first Western contact with the holy man was in 1968 when he made an appearance at the Spiritual Summit Conference in Calcutta, India, sponsored by the Temple of Understanding of Washington, D.C. Several delegates followed him home and one, Charlotte P. Wallace, now president of the foundation, stayed to learn. Word spread of his work, and in 1969 he was invited to the United States to take up residence in San Francisco, which became the world headquarters of the foundation. Those from countries around the world who witnessed his revelations firsthand returned to their respective countries to organize themselves within the spirit and corporate structure of the foundation to create bases for international communication and activity, with the single purpose of breaking down the barriers of nationality, religion, and race and foster the mutually beneficial and harmonious relationships of nations.

The foundation is led by a governing body consisting of the president and seven officers. Each country has a president directly responsible to the world president. Each local leader is responsible to the national president.

Membership

In 1997 the foundation reported 5,000 members in the United States and 25,000 members in the world. There were 21 centers worldwide in 10 countries.

Sources

The Foundation of Revelation. www.thefoundationofrevelation.org.

Gangaji Foundation

2245 Ashland St., Ashland, OR 97520

Harivansh Lal Poonja (1910–1998), affectionately called Poonjaji by his students, is a teacher of advaita vedanta, the Indian philosophy of nonduality. He was born in 1910 in Gujranwala, India (Pakistan), and grew up in what is now Pakistan. His mother was the sister of Swami Rama Tirtha (d. 1906), an early twentieth-century vedanta teacher who was one of the first Hindu gurus in America. He married and joined the army, but his only interest was in the spiritual life. In 1944 he met Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) and stayed with him until he was forced to return to his family at the time of the partition of Pakistan. He cared for his family until the last child left home, and then in 1966, he retired and began a period of his life as one who had discovered absolute oneness. He wandered for many years, but finally settled in Lucknow, India.

Poonjaji emphasizes a simple message. Human beings are pure consciousness and hence absolutely free. The spiritual life is not a matter of attaining freedom, but of realizing that one is already free.

Poonjaji met many of the Americans who came to India on spiritual quests beginning in the 1960s. During the 1980s he made several trips to America to teach, but established no permanent work. Then in 1988, Andrew Cohen, one of his students, began teaching in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cohen separated from Poonjaji and headed the Moksha Foundation (California), currently EnlightenNext (see separate entries).

In 1990 Antoinette Varner met Poonjaji. Confirming her Self-realization, Poonjaji gave her the name Gangaji and instructed her to carry this message of freedom to the West. Today, Gangaji travels throughout the world holding satsang, and has established Satsang Foundation & Press in Boulder, Colorado, to further the teachings of this lineage to all who are interested.

The Gangaji Foundation’s purpose is to serve “truth of universal consciousness, and the potential for individual and collective recognition of peace, inherent in the core of all beings.” It is to present the teachings and transmission of Gangaji through Sri Ramana Maharshi and Poonjaji.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

The Gangaji Foundation. www.gangaji.org.

Ingram, Catherine. “Plunge Into Eternity.” Yoga Journal (September/October 1992): 56–63.

Poonja, H. W. L. Wake Up and Roar. Kula, Maui, HI: Pacific Center Press, 1992.

Grace Essence Fellowship

c/o Martin Lowenthal, 53 Westchester Rd., Newton, MA 02158

Grace Essence Fellowship was founded in the late 1970s by Lars Short, formerly a student of the late Swami Rudhrananda (1928–1973). Rudrananda, the founder of the Nityananda Institute, Inc., was among the first of the contemporary teachers of kundalini yoga in America. Lars Short trained with Rudrananda and in 1965 began his career as a yoga instructor. After Rudrananda’s death, Short went on to study with His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse, a Tibetan master, and to absorb elements of Zen and Taoism into a synthesis that, he notes, Rudrananda had seen emerging as an all-encompassing Spiritual Work.

Short refers to his system as the Way of Radiance. The Way begins in the presupposition that it is possible to live life to the fullest rather than suffer, and to be an agent of grace rather than struggle. It proposes four principles: Life is a gift. All experience can nurture growth. We can live each moment so as to make our self-expression a celebration of life. If we commit ourselves to growth and freedom beyond any set agenda or identity, we can transcend present ways of relating to ourselves, others, and life itself. Short has adapted practices from his several teachers, including Tibetan mindfulness practices and tantric exercises.

Members of the fellowship have the opportunity to train to become practitioners and then seminarians, who take responsibility for passing on the Radiance teachings.

Membership

Not reported. There are eight study groups across the United States, two in Canada, and one in Venezuela.

Sources

Lowenthal, Martin. “Grace Essence Fellowship: Supporting Growth and Freedom.” Tantra 9 (1994): 64–65.

———. “A Spiritual Home in the Grace Essence Fellowship.” Tantra 9 (1994): 65.

Haidakhan Samaj

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Haidakhan Ashram, P. O. Haidakhan, via Kathgodam. Dist. Nainital, Utter Pradesh 263126, India.

The Haidakhan Samaj was founded in 1980 to coordinate the activities of followers of Haidakhan Baba, also known as Babaji and Mahavatar Babaji. Babaji is believed to be an avatar, a physical incarnation of divinity, who has a history of incarnation over a period of thousands of years. He is known as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, who, in the Hindu tradition, is considered to be the Master Teacher. Babaji incarnates in human form from time to time to demonstrate and teach ways that can lead people to harmony and unity with the Divine.

Present-day disciples of Babaji look to several ancient scriptural references that may refer to him as well as several nineteenth and twentieth century accounts. The first, and still the major, book in the West about Babaji is Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Yogananda wrote of his master’s teacher’s first encounter with Babaji in the Indian Himalayas in 1863. There are many stories of people’s miraculous encounters with Babaji in the last half of the nineteenth century.

There are several books in the Hindi language detailing the incarnation of an avatar-saint known as Haidakhan Baba, who lived in the Kumaon foothills of the Himalayas from about 1890 to 1922. He was recognized then as an incarnation of Lord Shiva and as a form of Mahavatar Babaji. Some of the stories about this incarnation of Babaji were collected and translated by Baba Hari Dass of the Sri Rama Foundation of Davis, California, in a book titled, Hariakhan Baba Known, Unknown. When he left his body in 1922, Babaji is reported to have said that he would return to help humanity.

In 1949, an Indian saint named Mahendra Baba, who had seen Babaji several times in his childhood and youth, was blessed with a physical manifestation of Babaji in an ashram of Haidakhan Baba. From that time on, Mahendra Baba devoted his life to preparing for the return of Babaji. He wrote several books about Babaji, restored the old ashrams, and called upon people to be ready for his return. Mahendra died in 1969.

In June 1970 Babaji appeared again in Haidakhan Baba’s ashram in the Kuaon village of Haidakhan. From then until his death on February 14, 1984, he traveled extensively in northern India and taught from several Babaji ashrams around the country, but spent the majority of his time in the remote village ashram in Haidakhan. Tens of thousands of Indians came to him, and hundreds came from Europe and America. Most of the time, he purposely avoided large crowds in order to perform the traditional guru’s task of teaching and training people who were truly dedicated to the attainment of spiritual knowledge and growth. He taught them mostly by example, often on a mind-to-mind level rather than orally. He guided each devotee step by step through the experiences they needed for growth. Many people were brought to Babaji by miraculous experiences.

According to his own claim, Babaji came, in every incarnation, to restore the Sanatan Dharma—the eternal law of order under which the creation was manifested and operates in harmony with the Divine Will. He urged his followers to live in Truth, Simplicity, and Love, seeing all of creation as a manifestation of the Divine, and living in harmony with all. He respected all the established religions, and taught that each one can lead its devotees to unity and true devotion, renouncing the attachment to materialism which chains humankind to its lower nature. As an aid to keeping the Divine foremost in the followers’consciousness, he taught people to repeat the names of God at all times: the mantra which he taught to most people was “Om Namah Shivai,” which may be translated as “I take refuge in God (Shiva).”

Babaji’s followers worship him through a sung worship service called the aarati, morning and evening, and worship the formless Divine through an ancient fire ceremony, called the yagya or hawan. But the worship most advocated was that of selfless work, karma yoga, performed without ego for the benefit of all living beings, in harmony with the Divine Will.

There are Babaji ashrams and centers in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United States, there are ashrams in The Baca Grande, Crestone, Colorado; Mountain View, Hawaii; Malmo, Nebraska; and at Consciousness Village near Sierraville, California, as well as centers in many cities.

Membership

In 1995 the ashram reported 90 members in the United States and 10 in Canada. There were 15 centers in the United States and one in Canada. There were 8,000 members worldwide.

Periodicals

American Haidakhan Samaj Newsletter.

Sources

Goodman, Shdema. Babaji, Meeting with Truth at Hairakhan Vishwa Mahadham. Farmingdale, NY: Coleman, 1986.

Hari, Dass Baba. Hariakhan Baba Known, Unknown. Davis, CA: Sri Rama Foundation, 1975.

Orr, Leonard [and Makhan Singh]. Babaji. San Francisco, CA: Author, 1979.

Teachings of Babaji. Nainital, India: Haidakhan Ashram, 1983–1984.

Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946.

Hamsa Yoga Sangh

GSY (Gurunath Siddhanath Yoga), PO Box 930, Union City, CA 94587

Alternate Address

Siddhanath Forest Ashram, Sitamai Dara, Simhagadh, Pune, Maharastra, India.

The Hamsa Yoga Sangh was founded by Gurunath Siddhanath, a spiritual teacher of Kriya Yoga who has a lineage derived from his study with the Nath Masters of the Himalayan Mountains. The Nath lineage traces its origins to the deity Shiva and found its most important embodiment in Babaji, the mysterious master teacher originally introduced to the West by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952). Among the several Nath lineages, the one represented by Gurunath Siddhanath has been commissioned to bring Kriya Yoga teachings to the West. Siddhanath exercises his powers of shakipat to initiate the emergence of the kundalini power (believed to be latently existing) in each individual. Kriya Yoga is a form of Kundalini Yoga, exact teachings of which are reserved for initiates.

Gurunath Siddhanath had led in the construction of the Earth Peace Temple near Pune, Mahasharstra, India. It houses a unique alchemical Mercury Shiva linga (symbol of Shiva), whose radiations are believed to assist those who meditate there to realize Peace on Earth through Self Peace. Over the last decade, the Hamsa Yoga Sangh has spread internationally and developed centers across the United States and in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.

Membership

Not reported. In 2008 there were 10 centers operating in the United States, of which 8 were on the West Coast.

Sources

Hamsa Yoga Sangh. www.hamsa-yoga.org/.

Gurunath Siddhanath. Dew Drops of the Soul. Whitesboro, NY: Alight Publications, 2001.

———. Earth Peace through Self Peace. Whitesboro, NY: Alight Publications, 2003.

———. Wings of Freedom. Whitesboro, NY: Alight Publications, 2006.

Hanuman Foundation

223 N Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, NM 87501

The Hanuman Foundation, incorporated in 1974, is the focus of a number of activities that had their origin in the continuing career of Baba Ram Dass and were inspired by his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, popularly known as simply Baba. The foundation’s purposes have been to further the spiritual well being of society through education, service, and spiritual training. Its major project has been to support the spiritual teaching of Baba Ram Dass. Ram Dass is the name taken by Richard Alpert, the former professor of psychology at Harvard University who was fired along with Timothy Leary because of their LSD experiments. Within a short time he became discouraged with drugs as a means to attain higher states of consciousness and he turned to India. There he met Bhagwan Dass, a young American guru, and his teacher, Maharaji, who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. From Maharaji he learned raja yoga, the path to God through meditation. Ram Dass also developed a devotion to Hanuman, the monkey-faced deity of popular Hinduism. Maharaj taught him to serve and worship Hanuman, a practice which he has continued over the years, though many of his fans are unaware of it.

Upon returning to the West, Baba Ram Dass wrote and published Be Here Now, which emphasized his ideal of living in the present, other than being tied to the past or contemplating the future. He sees all people on a journey to enlightenment. Each person needs and has a guru to help his progress. Some gurus are on the physical plane, but such is not necessary since the relationship is spiritual. Each person is at a different place on his journey, and, thus, differing exercises are needed by each individual. Some might need yoga, renunciation, mantras, sex, or even psychedelic drugs. For Baba Ram Dass, yoga was the path to enlightenment.

During his first years back in the United States, Ram Dass traveled and spoke from a base in his residence in New Hampshire. Gradually, several organizations emerged to disseminate Ram Dass’s teachings. The Orphalese Foundation controlled a tape library and the ZBS Foundation (also known as Amazing Grace) published several records. Ram Dass also found himself at the center of a network that included a variety of service projects. These included a prison-ashram library project and assistance to the Hanuman Foundation, an organization seen as perpetuating the spirit and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba. In the more than a decade of existence, several structures associated with the foundation have emerged as important aspects of the work.

The Hanuman Foundation Tape Library superseded the Orphalese Foundation. It currently distributes audio and video tapes of Ram Dass and several close associates such as Stephen Levine. The Prison Ashram project distributed spiritual literature to prison libraries and has created a manual specially designed for inmates who wished to learn to meditate and follow a spiritual path during their years of imprisonment. In recent years the project has expanded to include residents of halfway houses, mental hospitals, and drug abuse programs.

The Neem Karoli Baba Hanuman Temple is located in a renovated adobe building at Taos, New Mexico. It houses a 1,500-pound marble statue of Hanuman carved to Ram Dass’s specifications. It serves approximately 300 Hindu families in a strip from Albuquerque to Denver. There is an annual and a weekly cycle of devotional services anchored in the singing and chanting services each Tuesday (Hanuman day). Hanuman’s birthday is celebrated in April and Neem Karoli Baba’s Mahasamahdi (death) is celebrated in September.

Seva Foundation, founded by Larry Brillant, a devotee of Baba, is an organization that began with a goal to end blindness in Nepal. Though independent of the Hanuman Foundation, Baba Ram Dass has given it his full support and the Hanuman Foundation Tape Library distributes recordings of Ram Dass’s lectures promoting its work.

In 2006, the Hanuman Foundation established the New Mexico Water Initiative along with local citizens and businesses to support community water conservation efforts through public education programs.

Membership

The Hanuman Foundation is not a membership organization.

Sources

Hanuman Foundation. www.hanumanfoundation.com

Dass, Baba Ram. Grist for the Mill. Santa Cruz, CA: Unity Press, 1977.

———. Miracle of Love. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979.

———. The Only Dance There Is. New York: Jason Aaronson, 1976.

———. Remember, Be Here Now. San Christobal, NM: Lama Foundation, 1971.

Inside Out. Nederland, CO: Prison-Ashram Project, Hanuman Foundation, 1976.

Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy

952 Bethany Tpke., Honesdale, PA 18431

Swami Rama (1925–1996) was a learned philosopher and master yogi who came to the United States to teach. As a child, he was adopted by an accomplished yogi from Bengal and raised in the tradition of the cave monasteries of the Himalayas. In 1949 he attained the position of Shankaracharya, an honor he relinquished in 1952 to further his own teaching goals. He came to the United States in 1969, where he served as research consultant to the Menninger Foundation Research Project on Voluntary Controls of External States. Working with psychologists Elmer Green and his wife Alyce Green, he demonstrated extraordinary physical feats of body-function control that offered significant material for the understanding of the mind/body connection. Swami Rama taught superconscious meditation, which is “a unique system to awaken the sleeping energy of consciousness, to raise its volume and intensity so that individual awareness becomes one with the Universal Self.” It involves relaxation, posture, breathing, and mantras.

Swami Rama founded the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in 1971 in Illinois. The institute headquarters moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, in 1977. Yoga, meditation, and holistic health are the main emphases of the institute. All levels of hatha yoga are taught, and raja yoga is emphasized as a means to balance body, mind, and spirit.

The Himalayan Institute publishes over 80 books on yoga science, meditation, health, psychology, and philosophy. It also publishes the bimonthly magazine Yoga +. Programs at the centers, especially at the headquarters campus, include a wide range of seminars, health programs, and residential programs. The Himalayan Institute partakes in a number of projects through its Global Humanitarian Projects program, which focuses on social regeneration, sustainable living, and empowerment of rural communities.

Membership

In 2002, the institute reported 37 branch and affiliated centers in the United States and abroad. Foreign work is conducted in Canada, India, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Trinidad, Curacao, and Malaysia. In 2002, there were 1,500 members in the United States.

Periodicals

Yoga +.

Sources

Himalayan Institute. www.himalayaninstitute.org.

Inspired Thoughts of Swami Rama. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1983.

Rama, Swami. Lectures on Yoga. Arlington Heights, IL: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1972.

———. Living with the Himalayan Masters. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1978.

———. Path of Fire and Light. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1986.

———. A Practical Guide to Holistic Health. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1978.

Rama, Swami, Rudolph Ballentine, and Swami Ajaya [Allan Weinstock]. Yoga and Psychotherapy. Glenview, IL: Himalayan Institute, 1976.

Hohm Community

PO Box 4272, Prescott, AZ 86302

Hohm Community, known as Hohm Sahaj Mandir since 1996, was founded in 1975 by Lee Lozowick, a former meditation instructor and businessman who experienced a spontaneous spiritual awakening after some years of intense spiritual discipline. This event left him in what he has described as an abiding condition of God-realization that subsequently led to his teaching work and the establishment of the formal guru-disciple relationship with a small group of students. Shortly after that, while traveling extensively in India, Lozowick met his spiritual teacher, Sri Yogi Ramsuratkumar (d. 2001), to whom he attributes his own awakening and who he calls the “source” of his teaching work. Beginning in 1976 Lozowick maintained a close and uniquely intimate relationship with Yogi Ramsuratkumar as his own guru and visited him annually at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India.

Lozowick adheres to an Eastern form within the lineage of Yogi Ramsuratkumar and his master Swami Papa Ramdas but also has called his school the Western Baul Way because of the deep resonance that his teaching and the sadhana (spiritual life) of his students have with the Bauls of Bengal. The Bauls of Bengal are an obscure sect of musicians and mystics who practice a form of bhakti yoga called kaya sadhana, or realization through the body. The tenets of the Baul path are based on a blend of Sahajiya Buddhism and Vaishnava Hinduism; the Bauls typically encode their teaching in poems, song, and dance rather than in written texts or treatises and often travel about Bengali villages singing and chanting for alms.

The Western Bauls of the Hohm Community live a life of disciplined spiritual practice, with daily meditation, a vegetarian diet, exercise, and study of spiritual/classic literature and comparative religion recommended as foundation-level preparation in the school. Other recommended aspects of sadhana are committed monogamous relationships, conscious child raising (completely nonabusive and child-centered), and mutual respect between sexes. As Western Bauls the community has two bands—a rock & roll band called “Atilla the Hunza,” and a traditional blues group called “Shri”—both of which perform original music (lyrics by Lozowick) composed by his students on a professional basis.

Membership

The Holm Community maintains an ashram in Arizona and an ashram in central France. As of 2001 the Hohm Community includes about 150 members in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Lozowick travels extensively, teaching and giving seminars, and resides on the ashram in France four months out of the year and in Arizona the remainder of the year.

Periodicals

Tawagoto.

Sources

A Basic Introduction of the Teachings and Practices of the Hohm Community. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Community, n.d.

Lozowick, Lee. Acting God. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Press, 1980.

———. Beyond Release. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, 1975.

———. Book of Unenlightenment. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Press, 1980.

———. The Cheating Buddah. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, 1980.

———. In the Fire. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, 1978.

———. Laughter of the Stones. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, n.d.

The Only Grace Is Loving God. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Press, 1984.

Holy Shankaracharya Order

6980 E River Rd., Rush, NY 14543

The Holy Shankaracharya Order had its beginning in 1968 when Swami Lakshmy Devyashram, a disciple of Swami Sivananda Saraswati, established the Sivananda Ashram of Yoga One Science. Through self-study and under Sivananda’s spiritual inspiration, she found samadhi (a mystic state of altered consciousness) in 1963. In 1964, she had a vision of Swami Sivananda and was led by him to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and New York. The guidance continued in the building of the retreat/camp. In 1969, she was ordained by Swami Swanandashram in the Holy Order of Sannyasa Saraswati, the order in which Sivananda was ordained. In 1974, Swami Lakshmy was elected Mahamandaleshwari (Great Overlord) of the Holy Shankaracharya Order in the United States.

In 1974 property was purchased in Virginia and a second ashram-temple complex was begun. It was dedicated in 1977. In 1978, from her superior in the Shankaracharya Order—Jagadguru Shankaracharya Abhinava Vidyateertha Maharaj, headquartered at Sringeri, India, the holy seat of the Order—Swami Lakshmy was requested to establish a shakti peetham (monastery), which was named Sri Rajarajeshwari Peetham. As the Swami gathered students around her, she ordained them, and they have become instructors in the various programs and activities. In the same year a Hindu Heritage Summer Camp was created. The response to this program led to the acceptance of the non-Indian, female swami by the Indian-American community.

In 1981, shortly before Swami Lakshmy died, Hindu priestly services were begun at the peetham. Swami Lakshmy was succeeded by Swami Saraswati Devyashram, one of her female students. Under her leadership the outreach to the Indian community has grown. A center has been opened in Tucson, Arizona, and a winter heritage camp initiated in 1982. The Holy Shankacharya Order has been a major traditional Saivite Hindu center. In 1983 Swami Saraswati Devyashram was initiated by the Jagadguru Shankaracharya at Sringeri. In 1984 it joined the ecumenical Council of Hindu Temples. It provides a full range of temple services at the peetham in the Poconos.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Vedic Heritage Newsletter.

Sources

Sri Rajarajeswari Peetham. www.srividya.org.

Indo-American Yoga-Vedanta Society

30 W 58th St., Apt. 11-J, New York, NY 10019

The Indo-American Yoga-Vedanta Society was founded in New York City by His Holiness Sri Swami Satchidananda Bua Ji (b. 1896), popularly known as Swami Bua Ji. Swami Bua Ji had been crippled at birth, and because doctors were unable to treat him, he was not expected to survive into adulthood. However, he was turned over to Sri Yogeswar Ji Maharaj, a teacher who worked with him using yoga and herbal treatments. At the end of this period, the youthful Swami Bua Ji emerged as both healthy and an accomplished yogi. For many years he was associated with the Divine Life Society founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

In the years after Indian independence (1948) Swami Bua Ji began to travel widely throughout Europe and North America giving popular demonstrations of yoga and allowing himself to become the subject of scientific investigations. In 1972 he settled in the United States and founded the Indo-American Yoga-Vedanta Society.

Membership

Not reported. There is one center in the United States and several others in Europe and India.

Institute of Advanced Mutuality

For information: [email protected].

Waking Down in Mutuality was cofounded by Saniel Bonder (b. 1950) a Jewish-American spiritual teacher, and his wife, Linda Groves-Bonder. Saniel Bonder began his spiritual seeking as a student at Harvard University at the end of the 1960s. He later discovered the writings of Ramana Maharshi, and then in 1973 joined the Daist community led by Adi Da (then known as Bubba Free John). He left the Daist community (now called Adidam) in 1992, complaining of an overemphasis on guru devotion, and entered a period of intense self-examination that led to what he described as an establishment in the “onlyness of being.”

He called the new approach to spiritual awakening “Waking Down,” as opposed to “waking up.” He suggests that we err in trying to disassociate ourselves from the messy stuff of life, to escape the wheel of birth and death (reincarnation). Instead, he teaches that we should seek a liberation into the wheel of birth and death, but with our infinite spirit-consciousness intact: The purpose of life is not to escape life, but to be present more profoundly. Earth is seen as a very suitable place for the critical work of conscious evolution. Bonder and his students began to explore spiritual existence through combining infinite, unconditional conscious spirit and finite, mortal embodiment and relationships.

Bonder created several successive organizations to facilitate his teachings, including Mt. Tam Awakenings in the mid-1990s and, in 2005, the Institute for Advanced Mutuality. Meanwhile, he had begun to train and certify teachers of the Waking Down process; those teachers now are organized in the Waking Down Teachers Association. The institute sponsors programs throughout the United States, which is divided into seven regions administered by seven area teachers.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Institute of Advanced Mutuality. www.wakingdown.org/;awakenedmutuality.org/; www.sanielandlinda.com/.

Bonder, Saniel. Great Relief: Nine Sacred Secrets Your Body Wants You to Know about Freedom, Love, Trust, and the Core Wound of Your Life. Petaluma, CA: Mt. Tam Empowerments, 2004.

———. Waking Down: Beyond Hypermasculine Dharmas: A Breakthrough Way of Self-Realization in the Sanctuary of Mutuality. Petaluma, CA: Mt. Tam Empowerments, 1998.

Integral Yoga International

c/o Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, 108 Yogaville Way, Buckingham, VA 23921

The Rev. Sri Swami Satchidananda, one of several disciples of Swami Sivananda Saraswati to carry his teaching around the world, founded the Integral Yoga Institute. Satchidananda, after years of spiritual seeking, met Swami Sivananda in 1947. In 1949, he was initiated as a sannyasin (monk) into a life of renunciation and selfless service and was given his name, which means Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. Because of Swami Satchidananda’s mastery of all the branches of yoga, he was given the title “Yogiraj,” or master of yoga. After 17 years of work with Sivananda’s Divine Life Society, he came to New York on an intended two-day visit, but was asked to stay to become the founder-director of the Integral Yoga Institute (IYI) and the spiritual head of Integral Yoga International.

The IYI teaches all aspects of Integral Yoga including Hatha Yoga (to purify and strengthen the body and mind); Karma Yoga (selfless service); Bhakti Yoga (the path of love and devotion to God); Jnana Yoga (the path of wisdom); Japa Yoga (the repetition of a mantra); and Raja Yoga (the path of concentration and meditation).

Since 1975, Swami Satchidananda initiated disciples (both men and women) into the Holy Order of Sannyas. Sannyasins take the traditional vows to serve and to practice nonviolence toward all living beings. In 1980 the Integral Yoga Ministry was established. Integral Yoga ministers may be married or single; they take vows to live in the spirit of nonattachment, physical and mental purity, and obedience. In 1985, the headquarters of Integral Yoga International moved from the ashram in Connecticut to a new ashram in Virginia.

Sri Swami Satchidananda is known for his involvement in interfaith work. In 1986, at the Virginia ashram, the Light Of Truth Universal Shine (LOTUS) was dedicated to honor all the world religions. Here, people of all faiths can come to meditate and pray in the same place. A central column of light rises and divides into 12 rays to illuminate altars for individual faiths set within the petals of LOTUS. The LOTUS symbolizes the unity in diversity of all religions and reflects Satchidananda’s teaching that “Truth is One–Paths are Many.” Several yoga teacher training programs are in place at the Yogaville ashram.

Membership

There is no formal membership in IYI. In 1997 it reported 23 centers in the United States and four in Canada headed by 60 monks and ministers worldwide. There were 11 affiliated centers in various foreign countries.

Periodicals

Integral Yoga Magazine. • IYI News. Send orders to 227 W 13th St., New York, NY 10011.

Sources

Integral Yoga International. www.iyiva.org.

Bordow, Sita, et al. Sri Swami Satchidananda: Apostle of Peace. Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1986.

Satchidananda, Sri Swami. A Decade of Service. Pomfret Center, CT: Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, 1976.

———. The Healthy Vegetarian. Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1986.

Satchidananda, Swami. Integral Hatha Yoga. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

———. The Glory of Sannyasa. Pomfret, CT: Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, 1975.

Satchidananda, Swami, et al. Living Yoga. New York: An Interface Book, 1977.

Weiner, Sita. Swami Satchidananda. New York: Bantam Books, 1972.

Inter Faith Center (IFC) Temple of Divine Love

Current address could not be obtained for this edition.

The IFC Temple of Divine Love was formed by Shri Param Eswaran, a Tamil Indian born in 1944 in Malaysia. Eswaran met Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) when he was only nine years old, and later studied with one of Sivananda’s students, Swami Shantananda, and read widely in the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952). He emerged as a teacher in the mid-1970s and in 1976 moved to Australia. That same year Eswaran made his first tour of his adopted national home as a teacher of Tantric Yoga. In 1982, with the assistance of his students, he opened Param’s Indian Restaurant and an associated healing center in Woollahra, Australia. Eswaran founded the IFC Temple of Divine Love in 1990.

The IFC Temple of Divine Love promulgates Inter Faith Tantra, tantric teachings it believes to be the most suited to the contemporary world (and similar to those perpetuated by the Self-Realization Fellowship). It does not see itself as a particular religion, but as a temple of God/Goddess All That Is that makes available knowledge of scientific techniques for attaining direct personal experience of Shakti, the Mother God within each person.

As part of his Tantric Yoga teaching, Eswaran also teaches what he terms yoni healing, a practice integrated with his understanding of astrology. Vedic astrology teaches that each person possesses 1 of 14 specific soul tendencies toward emotional involvement or entanglement within sexual relationships (known as yoni kutas), each personified as a different kind of animal. Using astrology, Eswaran determines the basic nature of each individual’s yoni kuta. It is his belief that the placement of the planets at the time of birth gives each person an electromagnetic imprint highlighting the particular karmic obstacles that must be overcome to reach the goal of oneness. He believes that anyone may reach that goal in this life.

To carry out his work, Eswaran travels widely and has developed centers of activity in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Malaysia, and India. The IFC Temple has also developed an expansive Internet presence, through which it shares information on all aspects of tantra and vegetarianism.

Membership

Not reported. In the United States, support is concentrated in Maine, Texas, and California.

Sources

Inter Faith Center (IFC) Temple of Divine Love. www.tantra-ifc-the-art-of-conscious-love.com/.

Intergalactic Culture Foundation

1569 Stonewood Ct., San Pedro, CA 90732

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Sri Swami Shyam Paramahansa Ministry International, Enlightenment Connoisseur’s Cozy Corner, Laxman Jhula 249302, Himalayas, India.

The Intergalactic Culture Foundation was founded in 1981 in Los Angeles by Sri Swami Shyam Paramahansa Mahaprabho, an Indian spiritual teacher. Originally known as the Intergalactic Lovetrance Civilization Center, in 1986 the organization created four divisions, each of which assumed a Sanskrit name: Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma Foundation, Aiem Hrem Kleem Chamundayai Vichche Foundation, Aum Naham Parvati Pate Foundation, and Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay Foundation. Each of these divisions assisted aspirants from different intellectual and emotional backgrounds to attain the wisdom of Truth.

Sri Swami Shyam and the foundation have published more than 100 titles, 60 Lovetrance World journals, the India Experience Newspaper, the Journey Back in Time Correspondence Course, and more than 100 videos and 200 audio cassette tapes. Swami Shyam made annual lecture tours across the United States and in 1998 was responsible for planning the international Galactic Chronicles Lecture Tour. By 2002 he had produced 2,000 pages of his own Commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam and 1,500 pages on Yoga Vasistha, Vivek Chudamani, and Upanishads. In addition, 70 audio discourses on his Bhagavat Katha are available for order; several electronic books are available at no charge. The discourses may be heard on www.live365.com.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Hindu Digest. • Golden India Enlightenment Connoisseur’s Newsletter.

Sources

Paramahansa, Swami Prem. What Is ILCC?. Hawthorne, CA: Intergalatic Lovetrance Civilization Center, [1983].

Prem, Sri Swami. Galatic Chronicles Lecture Program. Harbor City, CA: Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay, 1995. 37 pp.

Swami Prem Paramahansa and His Message. Hawthorne, CA: Intergalatic Lovetrance Civilization Center, 1983.

Who Is Swami Prem Paramahansa Mahaprabho? Hawthorne, CA: Intergalatic Lovetrance Civilization Center [1982].

International Babaji Kriya Yoga Sangam

14011 Mansa Dr., La Mirada, CA 90638

The International Babaji Yoga Sangam was founded in 1952 by Yogi S. A. A. Ramaiah. Yogi Ramaiah is the disciple of Kriya Babaji Nagaraj, the satguru of the order. Born and raised in Tamil, India, Nagaraj was initiated into Kriya Kundalini Pranayam by a sage named Agasthiya who resided at Kuttralam, India. He also traveled to Sri Lanka to study with another Siva Siddhanta teacher under whom he attained enlightenment. He eventually settled in the Himalayas, where he still lives. He has chosen to live quietly and allow his disciples to spread his teachings. The Babaji Yoga Sangam was founded under the guidance of Babaji Nagaraj. It is claimed that Nagaraj was born in 203 c.e. and lives on in defiance of the limitations of death.

Ramaiah became well known in the early 1960s as a result of his submitting to a number of scientific tests in which he demonstrated his control over several body functions, including the ability to vary his body temperature over a 15-degree range. He brought the movement he had founded in India to America in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, 15 centers had been opened across the country with headquarters in Norwalk, California. Sadhana centers, for more intense, live-in practice of kriya yoga, were established in several rural California locations. More recently the Yogi Ramaiah established the first shrine to Ayyappa Swami, a figure in the ancient Hindu holy books, the Puranas, in Imperial City, California. Each December, beginning in 1970, members of the sangam make a pilgrimage from the shrine, which also serves as the American headquarters of the group, to Mount Shasta, 800 miles away in the mountains of northern California. Ramaiah passed away in July 2006 at the age of 83.

Membership

Not reported.

Educational Facilities

KBYS Holistic Hospital and Colleges of Yoga Therapy and Physiotherapy, Tamil Nadu, India.

Sources

International Babji Yoga Sangam. www.kriyayoga.org.

Ramaiah, Yogi S. A. A. Shasta Ayyappa Swami Yoga Pilgrimage. Imperial City, CA: Pan American Babaji Yoga Sangam, n.d.

International Divine Realization Society

c/o Devanand Yoga Cultural Center, 2285 Sedgwick Ave., No. 102, Bronx, NY 10468

The International Divine Realization Society was founded by H. H. Swami Guru Devanand Saraswati Ji Maharaj, a spiritual teacher from India. Swami Devanand teaches a form of jnana yoga which is practiced by a form of meditation with the use of a mantra. It is Swami Devanand’s claim that the use of mantra yoga meditation will give the practitioner a growth of goodwill and stability, improve memory and concentration, bring an awareness of the supreme being, and eliminate psychiatric disorders. The center in New York hosts a complete round of activities including meditation sessions, Sunday puja, hatha yoga classes, and special activities in stress management and natural medicine. Most programs are held in both English and Spanish.

Membership

Not reported.

International Gurukulam

114 E 28th St. #2A, New York, NY 10016

The International Gurukulam was founded by Yogacharya Yogabhaskara Yogiraj Yogashiromani Yogarshi Dileepkumar, popularly known simply as Guru Dileepji. It can be traced to an alternative healing clinic founded by Guru Dileepji’s parents in Kottayam, India, in 1957. In 1979 Guru Dileepji expanded and renamed the center, now located in Tripunithura, as the International Gurukulam (A Divine Life Research Center for Yogic Arts, Sports, and Medicines). He later opened a second center at Kothamangalam, India.

Along the way, Guru Dileepji was joined by Yogacharini Mata Nanditaji, a Western yoga practitioner who had studied with a variety of teachers, including Indra Devi, Swami Satchitananda, Swami Vishnu-Devananda, and Swami Bua (who was reportedly 128 years old as of 2007). With Mata Nanditaji’a assistance, in 1999, Guru Dileepji opened the first International Gurukulam center in the West, the Yogabhavan in Brooklyn, New York. That center relocated to New York City in 2004. The same year, he opened an additional Yogabhavan in Cochin, Kerala, India.

The International Gurukulam offers a spectrum of classes in yoga, geared to the individual. Classes include asanas (postures and poses) that lead to a full practice of Raja Yoga, including work on breathing, concentration, and meditation.

The International Gurukulam is affiliated with the World Yoga Community and the International Yoga Federation and has strong fraternal ties to the Divine Life Society and the Ramakrishna Mission in India.

Membership

Not reported. There is one center in the United States, which serves as an outpost of the international movement.

Sources

Yogabhavan International Gurukulam. www.yogabhavan.com/main.asp.

International Meditation Institute

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Kullu, H.P. 175 101, Himalayas, India.

The International Meditation Institute grew out of the work of Swami Shyam (b. 1924). As a young man, he realized a state which he termed “Shyam Space,” described as a state of pure existence and pure consciousness in which one drops one’s identification with the world and identifies with the pure self. This is a form of what is generally termed advaita vedanta. The future Swami Shyam was a government career worker when he began to teach out of his experience. In the 1970s he was discovered by two Canadian tourists who invited him to Toronto. His brief visit was extended to more than a year after his papers were stolen, and when he finally returned to India, he had a group of Canadians with him. They gave him the unofficial title of “Swami”. Officially, the title “Yog Shromani” was added to the title of “Swami” by the President of India, Giani Zail Singh, in 1987.

From the original Western center in Montreal, other centers have been founded in Canada, the United States, Europe, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, and Taiwan.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

International Meditation Institute. www.shyamspace.com.

Cushman, Anne, and Jerry Jones. From Here to Nirvana: The Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual India. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)

c/o ISKCON International Ministry of Public Affairs, 1030 Grand Ave., San Diego, CA 92109

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is a major representative of that form of devotional Vaishnava Hinduism which grew out of the work of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534?), the famed Bengali saint. Chaitanya advocated a life of intense devotion centered upon the public chanting of the names of God, primarily through the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna/Hare Hare, Krishna Krishna/Hare Rama, Hare Rama/Hare Hare, Rama Rama.

ISKCON developed out of the activity of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977). Prabhupada was a businessman. He was initiated into the revived Krishna Consciousness movement represented in the Guadiya Mission in 1932. In 1936 his guru told him to take Krishna worship to the West, but he was unable to fulfill his mission to spread the movement until the 1950s. In 1959 he took his vows for the renounced life in the sannyasin order. In 1965 he traveled to America, where he established a movement to spread Krishna Consciousness. ISKCON was founded the following year in New York City. A magazine was begun and a San Francisco center opened in 1967. Besides leading the movement and serving as the initiating guru to the several thousands of adherents, Prabhupada was a prolific translator/author. He produced two series of translations and commentaries on the main scriptures of Krishna Consciousness, The Srimad Bhagavatam and the Caitanya-caritamrita. His primary work, the one that most new members first encounter, was his translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, The Bhagavad-Gita As It Is.

The movement grew, though never in the great numbers that its media coverage often suggested. It was a frequent object of media coverage because of its colorful appearance and strange, exotic beliefs and practices. During the 1970s it became one of the major targets for the anti-cult movement.

The central thrust of ISKCON is bhakti yoga, which with this organization takes the form of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. The chanting is the process for receiving the pure consciousness of God (thought of in his prime incarnations of Krishna and Rama) and dispelling the maya or illusion in which the world is immersed. Devotion also includes the following: service to the deity statues found in all Krishna temples; telok, markings of the body with clay in 12 places, each representing a name of God; kirtan, the public chanting and dancing to Krishna; and eating and distribution of prasadam, food (vegetarian) offered to Krishna. Devotees also study much traditional Hindu lore (Vedic culture), the history of bhakti yoga, and the writings of the founder.

As the society has spread, it has gained fame for its festivals and feasts. Each summer one or more international festivals featuring a mass parade honoring Lord Jagannath are held, and everyone is fed a vegetarian meal. Weekly feasts (open to the public) are part of the normal activity of the local temple.

Prior to Prabhupada’s death, he appointed a 22-member governing body commission (GBC) which had begun to function in the early 1970s and provided a smooth transition of power in 1977. Included in the GBC were the initiating gurus, that is, those within the movement with the power of initiating new disciples. The initiating gurus are looked to for maintaining high spiritual standards and inspiring others to do so. The GBC provides overall coordination and administrative oversight to the movement, which is divided into a number of zones. The various zones are further divided into different corporations, each independent and autonomous under the management of local teachers and the zonal GBC. There is no longer any central headquarters, although in the major cities and in Vrindavan, India, ISKCON temples are international centers for the movement as the destinations of mass annual pilgrimages. The decentralization has led to the formation of a variety of publishing programs in the several zones.

During the 1980s, ISKCON was hit with a serious controversy between the more conservative elements and those advocating reforms. Crucial to the disagreements were varying opinions on the guru puja, the veneration of the guru, which had been an integral part of the daily morning ISKCON ritual while Prabhupada lived. Reform-minded gurus began to question the legitimacy of the current initiating gurus receiving guru puja and began to discontinue it in their zones. Some of the call for reform came as a response to several gurus who had been disciplined for not living according to their vows. Most vocal in the cause of reform was Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, who authored a number of books on the subject.

Most persistent in defending the guru puja was Kirtananda Swami Bhaktipada, head of the New Vrindaban community in West Virginia (see separate entry). This was one major issue in the 1987 excommunication of Bhaktipada and the reorganization of the temples under him into a separate organization.

Membership

In 2008, ISKCON reported 10,000 temple devotees and 250,000 congregational devotees, with 350 centers, 60 rural communities, 50 schools, and 60 restaurants worldwide.

Periodicals

Back to Godhead. Send orders to Box 18928, Philadelphia, PA 19119-0428. • The ISKCON World Review. Send orders to 3764 Watseka Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034. ISKCON Communications Journal.

Remarks

In Hawaii, ISKCON experienced a temporary schism when a rival group under Sai Young emerged. Young’s followers, known as the Haiku Meditation Center and Krishna Yoga Community, followed Bhaktivedanta’s teachings but did not don the saffron robes or shave their heads. The group disbanded in 1971, and ISKCON inherited its members.

In 1983 a former member of the movement, Robin George, was awarded $9,700,000 in a lawsuit against the movement. The amount was later reduced on appeal, and ISKCON reached a settlement with George for an undisclosed amount in 1993.

Sources

International Society for Krishna Consciousness. www.iskcon.com.

Goswami, Satsvarupa dasa. Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. 6 vols. Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1980–1983.

Judah, J. Stillson. Hare Krishna and the Counterculture. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974.

Knott, Kim. My Sweet Lord. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press, 1986.

Prabhupada, Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta. Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1972.

Rocheford, E. Burke, Jr. Hare Krishna Transformed. New York: New York University Press, 2007.

Isha Foundation

Dhyanalinga Temple, Isha Yoga Center, Semmedu (PO), Coimbatore, India 641 114

The Isha Foundation is a yoga fellowship founded in 1992 by Satguru Jaggi Vasudev (b. 1957). Vasudev was born in Mysore, Karnataka, India, and as a young man graduated from Mysore University. He had also studied yoga since his childhood years under Shri Raghavendra Rao, also known as Malladihalli Swami. Then, at the age of 25, he had a mystical experience that he described as a spontaneous experience of the Self (Divine or Ultimate Consciousness). The experience altered his life and led him to develop a new form of yoga that he called the Yoga of the Divine and offered as a spiritual science that could lead to a transcending of the body and mind. The ultimate goal was the awareness of the essential divine nature within all human beings. Along the way Vasudev authored four books: Encounter the Enlightened, Dhyanalinga: The Silent Revolution, Eternal Echoes, and Mystic’s Musings.

Vasudev envisioned the Isha Foundation as an organization that would transmit inner sciences of universal appeal. The operative word in the foundation’s name, Isha, is understood as the formless primordial source of creation. The foundation offers instruction in the new system of yoga developed by Vasudev, which he renamed Isha Yoga. Vasudev sees it as distilling ancient yogic methods for the modern person. Very early in learning Isha Yoga, the individual is introduced to a process of inner engineering, Shambhavi Maha Mudra, a powerful kriya (or inner energy process) designed to facilitate deep inner transformation.

The foundation has completed the erection of the Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple, located in a forest at the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains. Within the temple is a Dhyanalinga. At 13’9”, it is the largest mercury-based linga (or stylized phallus, a common a symbol of the deity Shiva) in the world. Vasudev consecrated it in 1999 following three years of intense yogic practice. Believed to be alive, Dhyanalinga provides the spiritual seeker an opportunity to perform yogic practices in intimate proximity to what can be considered a guru.

Above and beyond its yoga teachings, the foundation also sponsors several large-scale human service projects in India aimed at rural revitalization, reforestation, and implementation of an education program designed to assist village schools. These are being carried out through a large volunteer program.

Membership

In 2008, the foundation reported 18 centers in the United States and 2 in Canada. The several programs initiated by the foundation are carried out by more than 250,000 volunteers from more than 150 city-based centers spread worldwide.

Sources

Information on the Isha Foundation can be found on its various Web sites: www.dhyanalinga.org/about.htm, www.ishafoundation.org, www.ruralrejuvenation.org, www.projectgreenhands.org, www.ishavidhya.org, www.sadhguru.org.

Simone, Cheryl, and Satguru Jaggi Vasudev. Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2008.

Vasudev, Satguru Jaggi. Dhyanalinga: The Silent Revolution. Coimbatore, India: Isha Foundation, 2000.

———. Encounter the Enlightened: Conversations with the Master. New Delhi, India: Wisdom Tree, 2004.

ISKCON Revival Movement

93 St. Marks Pl., New York, NY 10009-5141

Alternate Address

PO Box 1056, Bushey, Great Britain WD23 3XH.

The ISKCON Revival Movement (IRM) is a movement working for the revival and reordering of the larger International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), founded by Hindu guru A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977). The IRM was created in 1999 as a vehicle for ISKCON members who believe that the ISKCON movement has erred in the guru structure it adopted after the death of Prabhupada and thus needs to be exposed and reformed.

Born in in Calcutta, Prabbhupada studied at Scottish Churches’ College, was married in 1918, and spent most of his life as a pharmacist and business manager. He was initiated as a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur in 1933. In 1965 Prabhupada traveled to the United States to bring the message of Krishna consciousness to the West. He attracted a significant number of followers in New York City, and the movement began to spread to other parts of the country and the world. He died in 1977 in India.

The ISKCON Revival Movement believes that ISKCON disobeyed the will and wishes of Prabhupada in adopting a zonal guru leadership after his death. The IRM has offered signed documents and papers arguing that the leadership in the movement was assigned to 11 gurus—Harikesa Swami, Jayatirtha dasa Adhikari, Hamsaduta Swami, Hrdayananda Gosvami, Ramesvara Swami, Bhagavan dasa Adhikari, Kirtanananda Swami, Tamala Krsna Gosvami, Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami, Bhavananda Gosvami, and Jayapataka Swami—instead of keeping Prabhupada as sole guru. In 2008 there were approximately 70 gurus in the worldwide ISKCON movement.

The IRM was formed through the efforts of longtime ISKCON devotee Krishnakant Desai, a British citizen of Indian ancestry. Krishnakant began researching the issue of guru succession in the late 1980s; his work resulted in initial publication of the Back to Prabhupada magazine in 1995. The book The Final Order was released the next year. After the governing body commission of ISKCON failed to accept Krishnakant’s arguments, he started the ISKCON Reform Group (IRG) which was expanded into the IRM. The group’s Web site contains extensive material on the issues related to guru succession.

Membership

In 2008 the movement reported approximately 500 members. The IRM is present in the United States, Canada, and 13 other countries, and has 10 centers.

Periodicals

Back to Prabhupada.

Sources

ISKCON Revival Movement. www.iskconirm.com/.

Krishnakant. The Final Order. 1996. Available from www.iskconirm.com/tfo.pdf.

Jean Klein Foundation

Box 2111, Santa Barbara, CA 93120

Jean Klein (d. 1998) was an Eastern European teacher of advaita, a teaching of nonduality. According to the advaita, our essential being or consciousness is beyond subject/object duality, beyond the thought process. In the year following the end of World War II, Klein, a musicologist and medical doctor, traveled to India on a spiritual quest. He had been stimulated to go to India by reading some of the writings of Rene Guenon. Within weeks he met a teacher who initiated him into the teachings of advaita vedanta, a teaching shared by such Indian teachers as Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Atmananda Krishna Menon. He returned to France in 1960 and held dialogues and yoga seminars. His first book, L’Ultimate Realité, was published in France in 1968. His first book in English, Be Who You Are, appeared in London, England, in 1978.

During the 1980s, Klein visited the United States for seminars and in 1989 he formed the Jean Klein Foundation to spread the teachings of advaita vedanta as presented by Klein. The foundation carries on an active teaching program through seminars held throughout the United States. Third Millennium Publications of Santa Barbara, California, is closely associated with the foundation and publishes Klein’s books.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Listening, The Jean Klein Foundation Newsletter.

Sources

Klein, Jean. Be Who You Are. London, England: Watkins, 1978.

———. The Ease of Being. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1984.

———. I Am. Santa Barbara, CA: Third Millennium Publications, 1989.

Kali Mandir

c/o Kali Mandir Puja Shop, PO Box 4700, Laguna Beach, CA 92652-4700

Founded in 1993 by Elizabeth Usha Harding, author of Kali the Black Goddess of Dakshineswar, Kali Mandir was formed to facilitate worship of the Divine Mother in the form of Kali and to make worship available to all. The worship is modeled on the teachings and practice of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi as established in the Dakshineswar Kali Temple in Calcutta, India. In adopting the Indian Hindu temple ideal, the leaders of the mandir are initially attempting to provide a place of worship for the seeker of God in the form of the Mother, especially in the form of Kali. Kali Mandir does not have a resident guru and is not based on any particular guru’s teachings. Rather than seek to convert people away from previously held beliefs, the mandir simply welcomes all.

Daily pujas (worship ceremonies), monthly amavasyas (New Moon worship), and yearly festivals are led by temple priests Sri Haradhan Chakraborti and Sri Pranab Ghosal. The organization aims to create a tangible spiritual atmosphere through worship, ritual, singing, chanting, volunteer service, reading of scriptures, and spiritual discussions.

A new temple was under construction in Laguna Beach, California, in mid-2008. Each summer the mandir sponsors an annual Kali Puja in Laguna Beach, officiated by the priests from the Dakshineswar Kali Temple in India.

Membership

Kali Mandir has no membership. The organization is financially supported primarily by donations and in part by income from gift shop sales.

Sources

Kali Mandir. www.kalimandir.org.

Kashi Church Foundation

11155 Roseland Rd., No. 10, Sebastian, FL 32958

The Kashi Church Foundation was founded by Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, a spiritual teacher who emerged as a result of an intense experience in the mid-1970s. She had been born Joyce Green into an orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, where she grew to adulthood. She married into a Roman Catholic family and settled into life as a housewife. Then in December 1972 she had a vision of someone whom she recognized as Jesus Christ. He subsequently reappeared three more times. Hesitantly at first, she turned for guidance to residents of a nearby Catholic seminary. Then in the spring of 1973 she had a second set of apparitions, this time of a person who called himself Nityananda.

As the apparitions began, she had no knowledge that such a person as Nityananda had actually lived. In fact, Swami Nityananda had been a prominent Hindu guru in India, had initiated a movement later headed by Swami Muktananda, and had an American disciple named Swami Rudrananda who initially brought his teachings to the United States. Nityananda, as he appeared to her, taught her about what he termed chidakash, the state in which love and awareness are one. He appeared to her almost daily for a year. He gave her a new name, Jaya (Sanskrit for “victory” or “glory”). Green, who began to call herself Joya Santanya, sought out Swami Rudrananda and shortly thereafter discovered Hilda Charlton, an independent spiritual teacher in Manhattan who encouraged her to become a teacher.

The final events in her transformation began on Good Friday 1974, when she began to bleed in a manner similar to Jesus’crucifixion wounds. On Easter Sunday morning, much to the consternation of her Roman Catholic in-laws, she bled profusely from both her hands and her forehead. The stigmata presaged a third set of apparitions, which began a few months later. An older man wrapped in a blanket appeared and introduced himself as her guru, and she was especially drawn to him as he seemed to share her devotion to Jesus. She would later see a picture of someone identified to her as Neem Karoli Baba (who had died the year before). This person had been a prominent Indian spiritual teacher who had deeply influenced Baba Ram Dass, who in turn had first introduced American audiences to his teachings.

Through the mid-1970s, 13 small communities that responded to Joya’s teachings were founded. In July 1976 she moved to central Florida with a small group of disciples and founded Kashi Ashram. Over the next few years she regularly visited the several houses and expanded her teaching work to the West Coast. Then in 1978 she fell ill, and many thought she might die. Responding to her condition many of the people living in the cooperative houses moved to Florida. After she regained her health, the people decided to stay at what had become an expanded ashram.

TEACHINGS

Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati teaches a form of advaita vedanta, the traditional monistic worldview derived from the Indian scriptures, the Vedas and the Upanishads. Vedanta sees the diversity of the visible world and human experience dissolve in the perception of the Oneness of ultimate reality. This insight is common to mysticism and may be found in esoteric forms of the major faiths and thus provides a meeting ground for people of other faiths.

Residents at Kashi come from different backgrounds and are drawn more by their relationship to Ma as guru than the acceptance of any particular religious beliefs. They also bring varying foundations to the religions in which they were raised. No attempt is made to convert people; rather, the individual’s devotion to a particular religion is recognized and nurtured as one expression of the mystical unity. In this manner Kashi is following the tradition of Neem Karoli Baba, who counted members of all the religions of India among his followers. Ma and members of the ashram assumed a prominent role at the centennial Parliament of the World’s Religions gathering in Chicago in 1993 as well as the Parliament of World’s Religions meeting in 1999 in Capetown, South Africa, and have been among those who arose to continue its work.

Through the 1990s Ma developed an impressive ministry to people affected by AIDS and HIV. Beginning with a small ministry in Los Angeles, southern Florida, New York, and Atlanta, the AIDS-related work has become a dominant element of ashram life. Ma regularly invites terminal AIDS patients to spend the last weeks of their life at the respite home at the ashram in Florida and enjoy the loving care it offers. The AIDS ministry grew out of Anadana into the River Fund, the ashram’s community service organization, which facilitates the participation of Kashi members in a variety of service projects in their community, from delivering food for meals-on-wheels recipients to manning the local crisis hotline. As the ashram’s ministries have grown and diversified, Ma established the River Fund as Kashi International, devoted to helping people in need. The community also has shown particular concern for ministering to children and has created a quality school to serve both the children of residents and the neighborhood.

ORGANIZATION

Kashi is headed and tied together by Ma. The Florida ashram is organized on a semi-communal basis with each adult resident responsible for an equal share of the community’s needed support. Most of the members hold jobs outside of the ashram. Residents follow a vegetarian diet. Narcotics, alcohol, and tobacco are forbidden. Family life is encouraged and married couples live together though celibacy is practiced except when couples are trying to have a child.

Members of the community gather daily for puja (worship ceremony) in the morning and for darshan (gathering with Ma) in the evening. Various different religious festivals are celebrated, especially Christmas and the Durga Puja (a major Hindu festival). Above community spiritual life, each individual is encouraged to follow personal devotional activities. Some are active in local churches.

In the early twenty-first century, Kashi has been developing some of its land in Sebastian, Florida, as a senior adult community called By The River, for adults age 62 years and older.

Membership

In addition to the Florida ashram, Kashi has centers in New York, New York, Los Angeles, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, each providing spiritual, educational, and service programs to its participants. Other programs and affiliated groups are located in the United States, Canada, and Africa. Through its network of thousands of volunteers, the Kashi Foundation touches the lives of 300,000 people worldwide annually.

Educational Facilities

Kashi Center for Advanced Spiritual Studies.

Sources

Kashi Ashram. www.kashi.org.

Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. Bones and Ash. Sebastian, FL: Jaya Press, 1995.

———. The River. Roseland, FL: Ganga Press, 1994.

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

57 Interlaken Rd., PO Box 309, Stockbridge, MA 01262

The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health was founded in 1966 as the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania by Amrit Desai, who had learned yoga as a teenager in his native India. Desai came to the United States in 1960 and began teaching yoga while otherwise pursuing a secular career. In 1970, however, a significant moment in his developing work occurred as he was performing his daily yoga practices. He experienced a spontaneous flow of yoga postures in which the innate and autonomous intelligence of his body performed the postures without conscious or willful direction from his mind. Through repetition and study of his experience, he developed a technique by which others could experience the same spontaneous flow. He termed this new technique Kripalu yoga in honor of Swami Kripalvanandji, his yoga teacher in India.

In 1971 the first Kripalu residential community was established in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania, as a small retreat where Desai and his students could live the contemplative lifestyle. By 1974, the community had grown in number and became a nonprofit organization known as the Kripalu Yoga Fellowship. In 1975 a retreat center was founded on a 370-acre plot near Summit Station, Pennsylvania, and approximately 170 residents moved into the new facilities. Then in 1983 the community moved to Shadowbrook, a former Jesuit novitiate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The ashram offered a full range of yoga and related programs, and many teachers who trained there went forth to found affiliated yoga centers across the United States. By the mid-1990s there were some 2000 certified yoga teachers working in more than 130 affiliated support groups in North America and some 35 countries of Europe and Central America.

The work built around Yogi Desai was prospering. The 270 residents at the ashram in Lenox constituted the largest such yoga center in North America. Then in the fall of 1994 the center’s board had to face the accusations of several women that Yogi Desai, who preached a celibate existence, had been forcing himself sexually upon them. In the face of the scandal, and following his admission of guilt, Desai was forced to resign as the spiritual director of the organization, which has since continued under the leadership of the center’s board.

The following years led to a restructuring, and by 1999 Kripalu was organized as a nonprofit rather than a religious order. By 2004, the board hired current executive leaders Garrett and Ila Sarley, whose focus was to upgrade aging facilities and strengthen and revitalize programs and outreach. The main focus of Kripalu as it stands today is education and outreach for yoga practice, yoga teacher training, training in ayurvedic practice and massage, as well as the development of several formal schools and institutions.

The center offers yoga retreats, programs, and festivals year-round.

Educational Facilities

Kripalu School of Ayurveda; Kripalu School of Massage; Institute for Integrated Leadership; Institute for Extraordinary Living; Institute for Integrated Healing.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

The Kripalu Experience.

Remarks

Among other disciples of Swami Kripalvanandaji in the United States is Shanti Desai, brother of Yogi Amrit Desai, head of the Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat in New Jersey.

Sources

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. www.kripalu.org.

Desai, Amrit. Guru and Disciple. Sumneytown, PA: Kripalu Yoga Ashram, 1975.

Gurudev, Sukanya Warren. The Life of Yogi Amrit Desai. Summit Station, PA: Kripalu Publications, 1982.

Kripalvanandji, Swami. Premyatra. Summit Station, PA: Kripalu Yoga Fellowship, 1981.

———. Science of Meditation. Vadodara, Gujarat, India: Sri Dahyabhai Hirabhai Patel, 1977.

MacDowell, Andie, and Isabella Rossellini. “Bad Karma.” Boston 87, 12 (December 1995): 66–71, 78–92.

Krishnamurti Foundation of America

Box 1560, Ojai, CA 93024-1560

The Krishnamurti Foundation of America was founded in 1969 to protect and disseminate the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, a spiritual teacher who emerged into prominence early in the twentieth century and carried on a unique independent teaching mission until his death in 1986.

Krishnamurti was born May 12, 1895, at Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India, into a Brahmin family. When he was 14 years old he was designated by Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater of the Theosophical Society as the vehicle for the coming world teacher whose appearance they had come to expect in their lifetime. Besant adopted Krishnamurti and took him to England, where she saw to his education and groomed him for his messianic role. In 1911 he was made head of a newly formed organization, the Order of the Star of the East, and through the 1920s he traveled around the world speaking on its behalf.

In 1929, after several years of questioning himself and his role, he dissolved the order, repudiated its claims, and returned all of the assets given to him for its furtherance. Setting the perspective that would dominate his future, he declared, “Truth is a pathless land and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. My only concern is to set humanity absolutely, unconditionally free.”

Renouncing any allegiance to caste, nationality, particular religion, or tradition, he spent the rest of his life traveling the world and lecturing until shortly before his death. He suggested that individuals had to free themselves from all fear, conditioning, authority, and dogma through self-knowledge, and that the gaining of such self-knowledge would result in order and psychological mutation. Only this psychological mutation by enough individuals, brought about by self-observation, not by a guru or organized religion, could transform the world. No social engineering would bring a world of goodness, love, and compassion.

His assertion that humans have to be their own guru and his rejection of all authority, including his own, attracted many people. A number of intellectuals and religious leaders engaged him in dialogue, and scientists discussed the bridging of science and mystical thought with him.

Krishnamurti was optimistic about the possibilities of education that emphasized the integral cultivation of the mind and heart and not just the intellect. Such education would allow students to discover the conditioning that distorts their thinking. To this end, he led in the founding of many schools in the United States, Great Britain, and India. The Krishnamurti Foundation of America supports the Oak Grove School in Ojai, California.

Krishnamurti also established foundations in those countries where support for his work was manifest. During his lifetime, the foundations provided a focus for his teaching work and assisted in the publication and dissemination of his teachings. In the years since his death their role of protecting and continuing the process of making his material available has come to the fore. Krishnamurti’s lectures and dialogues became the sources of numerous books and booklets, and during the last year of his life his lectures were taped on both audio and video.

The Krishnamurti Foundation of America works cooperatively with other foundations around the world including: Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada, the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, the Fundacion Krishnamurti Latinoamericana, and the Krishnamurti Foundation of India. The Krishnamurti Foundation of America houses a library and archives of Krishnamurti’s talks and related materials. Krishnamurti’s teachings are available via streaming video and audio presentations through www.kfa.org or jkrishnamurti.org.

Educational Facilities

Oak Grove Teacher’s Academy, Ojai, California.

Membership

In 1995 there were approximately 1,000 friends of the foundation who contribute to its work.

Periodicals

Newsletter.

Remarks

After Krishnamurti’s death, the foundation announced that it would continue to facilitate the distribution of Krishnamurti’s tapes and books and to channel support to Oak Grove School.

Sources

Krishnamurti Foundation of America. www.kfa.org.

Alcyone [Jiddu Krishnamurti]. At the Feet of the Master. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu. Commentaries on Living. 3 vols. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu, and David Bohm. The Ending of Time. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1985.

Lutyens, Mary. Krishnamurti, The Years of Awakening. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975.

———. Krishnamurti, The Years of Fulfillment. London: J. Murray, 1983.

Kriya Yoga Centers

PO Box 924615, Homestead, FL 33092-4615

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Nimpur, PO Jagatpur, Cuttack 754021, Orissa, India.

The Kriya Yoga Centers were founded by Swami Hariharananda Giri, a teacher of kriya yoga from the same lineage as Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of Self-Realization Fellowship. Swami Yogananda was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar who settled in Puri in the state of Orissa, India, in 1906, and built an ashram (religious community). Yogananda succeeded Yukteswar as president of the ashram. He was succeeded in 1936 by Sreemat Swami Satyananda. In 1970 Satyananda was succeeded by Swami Hariharananda Giri (b. 1911), who had been associated with the ashram for many years. Hariharananda spread the work of the ashram through India and in 1974 made his first trip to the West, to Switzerland. By the end of the decade he had several ashrams in Europe and in New York City. He continued to travel to the West periodically until his death in 2002. Today, the organization is led by Hariharananda’s successor, Paramahamsa Prajnanananda.

Kriya yoga is a technique imparted to disciples in initiation. It is based on breath control, which is believed to bring about God realization by turning attention from the outward to the inner self. It transforms the life force into divine force by magnetizing the psychic centers believed to exist along the human spine.

The organization has 10 centers in the United States and others in Canada, Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Soul Culture: A Journal of Kriya Yoga. Available from PO Box 9127, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.

Sources

Kriya Yoga Centers. www.kriya.org.

Hariharananda Giri, Swami. Isa Upanishad. Kriya Yoga Ashrams, 1985.

Kriya Yoga Tantra Society

633 Post St., Ste. 647, San Francisco, CA 94109

Amid the larger movement of Hinduism to North America, tantric forms have also come and a noticeable tantric movement has emerged around a set of independent tantric teachers. Several have established organizations propagating tantra, among them the Kriya Yoga Tantra Society. The society was founded by Andre O. Rathel, better known by his spiritual name, Sunyata Saraswati. Sunyata was a student of martial arts, the occult, and tantra. He traveled to India, where he studied with Satyananda Saraswati, the most important of the modern tantric teachers at his Bihar School of Yoga in Bengal. In the early 1980s he founded Beyond Beyond in Los Angeles, California. The Kriya Yoga Tantra Society supersedes Beyond Beyond.

While he has studied with additional tantric teachers, as well as Chinese Taoist masters in Hong Kong, Sunyata believes the kriya tantra tradition to be the purest and most elevating. This tradition is ascribed to Babaji, the legendary Himalayan teacher who Swami Paramahansa Yogananda first introduced to the West in his kriya yoga teachings, though Yogananda did not emphasize the left-hand tantrism as has Sunyata.

According to the society, the goal of tantric practice is to generate intense sexual energy through tactile sensations and yogic practices. That energy (usually termed kundalini) is then transmitted to the brain, and as the brain comes to life, the individual can perceive the Divine Order.

The society offers a wide variety of programs covering the range of tantric insight, and Sunyata travels the country giving workshops. Retreats are offered at a secluded center in Hawaii. He has also authored a basic text on the art of tantric union.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Jyoti.

Sources

Rathel, Andre O., and Annette B. White. Tantra Yoga: The Sexual Path of Inner Joy and Cosmic Fulfillment. Hollywood, CA: Beyond Beyond, 1981.

Saraswati, Sunyata. Activating the Five Cosmic Energies. San Francisco: Kriya Jyoti Tantra Society, 1987.

Saraswati, Sunyata, and Bodhi Avinsha. The Jewel in the Lotus: The Art of Tantric Union. San Francisco: Kriya Jyoti Tantra Society, 1987.

Kundalini Research Foundation

Box 2248, Darien, CT 06820

Gopi Krishna (1903–1984) was a Hindu master of kundalini yoga. After 17 years of meditation, he experienced the kundalini at the age of 34. He spent the years since exploring the nature of kundalini and has produced 14 books on the subject. In 1970, American Gene Kietter organized the Kundalini Research Foundation to disseminate Gopi Krishna’s books and writings and to continue his research.

Kundalini is the name given the divine energy believed to be lodged at the base of the spine. Often pictured as a coiled snake, the awakened energy travels up the spine and remolds the brain. It is identified with prana, the nerve energy which effects altered states of consciousness. The awakened energy is the biological basis of genius. Kundalini, according to Krishna, is concentrated in the sex energy. Awakening the kundalini redirects the prana from the sexual regions to the brain. In the awakening, a fine biological “essence” rises from the reproductive region to the brain through the spinal column. The flow can be felt behind the palate from the middle point of the tongue to the root and can be objectively measured.

In 2008 the foundation described its mission and purpose as promoting the scientific investigation of enlightenment, inspiration, genius, and the evolution of consciousness.

Membership

The foundation is not a membership organization. There are affiliated groups in India, Switzerland, and Canada.

Sources

Kundalini Research Foundation. www.kundaliniresearch.org.

Irving, Darrel. Serpent of Fire: A Modern View of Kundalini. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1954. 229 pp.

Krishna, Gopi. The Awakening of Kundalini. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1975.

———. The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

———. The Goal of Consciousness Research. Darien, CT: Friends of Gopi Krishna, 1998.

———. The Riddle of Consciousness. New York: Kundalini Research Foundation, 1976.

———. The Secret of Yoga. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

———. The Wonder of the Brain. Noroton Heights, CT: Kundalini Research Foundation, 1987.

———. Yoga, a Vision of Its Future. New Delhi, India: Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, 1978.

Life Bliss Foundation

9720 Central Ave., Montclair, CA 91763

The Life Bliss Foundation is an international community that has grown up around the life and work of Paramahamsa Nithyananda. Nithyananda was born in 1978 in Tiruvannamalai in South India and as a youth showed an inclination toward spiritual practices. He engaged in meditation and yoga and studied the Tantra, Vedanta, and Shaivite philosophies. As a college student, he completed a degree in mechanical engineering. In the early and mid-1990s he freely wandered the sacred Arunchala Mountain (made famous in the West by its association with Ramana Maharshi [1879–1950]) and studied with a variety of teachers, including one of Maharshi’s students. By the age of 22 he was considered to have gained the ultimate state of consciousness, termed nithyananda or eternal bliss. His inspiring and winsome personality soon drew followers to him, and Nithyananda extended his influence by allowing himself to be examined by scientists who were studying altered states of consciousness.

As Paramahamsa Nithyananda emerged as a teacher in the late 1990s, he founded the Life Bliss Foundation, which grew at a rapid rate in India. Early in the new century he began to travel the world, resulting in the formation of a number of meditation centers in different countries. In 2005 the Vedic Temple in Duarte (near Pasadena), California, was opened. This now serves as the Western headquarters for the foundation.

Nithyananda teaches that the goal of life is self-realization and that an effect of such realization is intense joy and bliss. To that end, he teaches his students the technique of Life Bliss Meditation (LBM), described as a simple and natural procedure through which to connect the meditator to their inner resources. Practice frees up creativity, energy, intelligence, and bliss. Nithyananda also teaches Nithya Yoga, a form of Ashtanga Yoga that he developed from his early study with Raghupati Yogi. He came to believe that Raghupati Yogi was a reincarnation of Patanjali (generally recognized as the founder of yoga).

Membership

Not reported. As of 2008, Life Bliss centers are found in 33 countries, including Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Kenya, France, and Italy. Centers are located across the United States.

Sources

Life Bliss Foundation. www.lifebliss.org/.

Life Bliss Meditation. www.lifeblissmeditation.org/intro.htm.

Nithya Yoga. www.nithyayoga.org/.

Nithyananda (Glimpses from the Biography of Paramahamsa Nithyananda). Bangalore, India: Life Bliss Foundation, 2006.

Life Mission

c/o Kirit N. Shah, 936 Commons Rd., Naperville, IL 60563

Alternate Address

c/o Mehul H. Patel, 515 Merril Lane, Peachtree City, GA 30236.

Life Mission (or more fully, the Lakulish International Fellowship’s Enlightenment Mission) was founded in 1993 by Swami Rajarshi Muni, a yoga teacher and a student of Swami Kripalvanandji (1913–1981), best known in the West as the teacher of Yogis Amrit and Shanti Desai. In the 1970s, Kripalvanandji focused his attention on the task, given to him by his guru, of reviving Indian culture, especially its cultural and moral values. He envisioned an expansive program of yoga education, and to that end Swami Rajarshi Muni drew up plans for a yoga institute, outlined its curriculum, and trained its first teachers. Kripalvanandji inaugurated the Lakulish Yoga Vidyalay (Lakulish Institute of Yoga) in 1976. Lakulish is the reputed ancient founder of the Pashupata sect of Shaivism; some see him as the real founder of yoga (rather than Patanajli).

Once the institute was set in motion, Swami Rajarshi Muni retreated into seclusion until 1993, when he had a vision of Lord Lakulish, who asked him to pick up the task left unfinished by Kripalvanandji. In response to this vision, Swami Rajarshi Muni established the Life Mission. The Mission has four objectives: to work for spiritual and cultural awakening around the globe; to promote the practice of yoga; to direct people toward the highest values; and to serve all humanity.

The Life Mission sees itself as an international fellowship that includes all who have received initiation from either Swami Kripalvanandji or Swami Rajarshi Muni; those who join and participate in the activities at the mission’s centers; and those rendering services in the work of the Mission. It is organized into two basic wings: renunciates (monks) and non-renunciate (lay) members, all of whom follow a code of conduct that includes simple rules concerning goodness and devotion. Also enjoined upon members is a daily set of devotions built around the practice of japa (mantra) yoga, utilizing the mantra given during initiation. Renunciate members strive to live a life in seclusion and to pursue a more intensive form of the practice of yoga.

Since its founding, the Life Mission has spread outside India to Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Life Mission. www.lifemission.org.

Rajarshi Muni, Swami. Classical Hatha Yoga. Gujarat, India: Life Mission Publications, 2007.

———. Divine Body through Yoga. Gujarat, India: Life Mission Publications, 2007.

———. Yoga. Gujarat, India: Life Mission Publications, 2005.

Light of Sivananda-Valentina, Ashram of

3475 Royal Palm Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33140

The Ashram of the Light of Sivananda-Valentina was established in the early 1960s by Sivananda-Valentina, a guru whose name came from the experience of merging her consciousness with that of her teacher, Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887– 1963), the famous guru from Rishikish, India. Sivananda taught integral yoga, a combination of the several aspects of yoga with some attention to hatha yoga, the physical postures (or asanas) as preparation for the higher disciplines of yoga.

Sivananda-Valentina followed the integral yoga tradition, stressing particular aspects. For example, she emphasized the mystical aspect of performing the yoga asanas which makes them more than a therapeutic exercise. She also concentrated on nada yoga, the yoga of sound, and the use of music—the singing of bhajans (devotional songs) forms an important part of satsangs (student gatherings with their guru).

A weekly round of yoga and meditation classes, informal prayer classes, and Wednesday evening meditation were undergirded with periodic celebrations, many observed from those of the world’s religions (Wesak, Christmas, Chanukah, etc.).

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Light of Sivananda-Valentina. lightsv.org.

The Heart and Wisdom of Sivananda-Valentina. 5 vols. Miami Beach, FL: Light of Sivananda-Valentina, 1970–1973.

Sivananda-Valentina. Meditations at Dawn. Miami Beach, FL: Light of SivanadaValentina, 1977.

Wings of Sivananda-Valentina. Miami Beach, FL: Ashram of the Light of SivanandaValentina, 1976.

Lokenath Divine Life Fellowship

c/o Mr. Paul Juneja, 211 Gunther Ln., Belle Chase, LA 70037

Alternate Address

Lokenath Divine Life Mission, P-591 Purna Das Rd., Calcutta 700 029, India.

The Lokenath Divine Life Mission was founded in 1987 by Swami Shuddhananda (b. 1949), a swami who has become famous for his social service work in Calcutta, India. Frequently compared to Mother Teresa, he has led in the founding of a variety of schools and medical services, and a number of economic ventures aimed at improving the life of city residents. As a young man, he had had a series of visions of the nineteenth-century saint Baba Lokenath. In the meantime he had become a professor of business at Hyderabad University. He eventually quit his job, wandered in the Himalayas for several years, and then opened the mission, in which he combines the spiritual teaching with social outreach in a manner reminiscent of Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikish, the founder of the Divine Life Society.

In the 1990s, Swami Shuddhananda traveled to the United States to share his spirituality and information about his work in India. A small number of American disciples have begun to appear.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Cushman, Anne, and Jerry Jones. From Here to Nirvana. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998. 399 pp.

Lovers of Meher Baba

c/o Meher Spiritual Center, 10200 Hwy. 17 N, Myrtle Beach, SC 29572

Meher Baba (1894–1969) was an Indian spiritual master born Merwan Sheriar Irani of Zoroastrian parents living in Pune, India. Baba is believed by his followers to be the avatar of the age. As a young man, he met Hazrat Babajan (b. 1931), a Muslim woman considered by some to be one of the five perfect masters (i.e., spiritually enlightened or “God-realized” persons) of the age. From her he received what he described as self-realization. According to Baba, the five perfect masters are always responsible for unveiling the avatar when he comes. Thus, in 1921, the last master, Upasani Maharaj, folded his hands and said, “Merwan, you are the Avatar; I salute you.”

That same year he gathered his first disciples, who began to call him Meher Baba, which means “compassionate father.” In 1924 he opened a permanent colony near Ahmednagar, India, called Meherabad. There he established a free hospital and clinic for the poor, and a free school for students of all creeds and castes. In 1925, he began observing silence, which he maintained for the rest of his life. For many years he communicated by pointing to the letters of the alphabet painted on a wooden board. In the last period of his life, he relied on hand gestures alone. Baba asserted that he kept silent in order to speak the Word of God in every heart. He also said that enough words had been spoken and it was now time to live God’s words.

Baba came to the West, including the United States, for the first time in 1931. Some of the Westerners he met on this and subsequent trips became disciples and went to live and work with him in India. His number of followers in the West grew steadily, spurred by his occasional visits (he made a total of six trips during his lifetime).

Baba said that he had not come to establish a new religion or sect, but rather to awaken people to the love of God. He declared himself the avatar, the same “ancient one” who has come age after age as Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, to renew divine love in the world. He also indicated that his advent required that he shed blood in both the East and the West, which, it is claimed, occurred in two automobile accidents: one in the United States (1952) and one in India (1956). He stated that suffering was a necessary part of his mission as avatar to bring about what he called a new humanity. He spent much of his life in service to others, especially the poor, the lepers, and those he termed masts or God-intoxicated. He considered these activities to be outward manifestations of transforming consciousness by awakening humanity to the oneness of all life. According to Baba, God was within every living thing and the goal of all life was to become one with God through love.

Because Baba said that his only message was of divine love, people who follow him are often called “lovers of Meher Baba.” Over the years many have been inspired to become Meher Baba lovers though there is no formal organization or membership. In the 1950s, many Americans came into contact with Meher Baba during his three visits to Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a place he called “my home in the West.”Today, the center and his tomb shrine in Meherabad, India, have become places of pilgrimage for thousands of Meher Baba lovers each year. Groups of followers gather informally throughout North America, India, Europe, and Australia. There are no set practices or creeds, and no formal organization to join. Meetings usually consist of sharing Meher Baba’s love through film, music, discussion, and readings from his discourses.

Membership

Since there is no formal membership, estimates of the number of Meher Baba’s followers varies widely. The number of newsletters and centers suggest that there may be some 10,000 in the United States, Europe, and Australia, and hundreds of thousands in India.

Periodicals

Glow International.

Remarks

With in the larger body of Baba lovers, there is one special close-knit group called Sufism Reoriented. This group derives from the original Sufi groups organized early in the century by Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927), founder of the Sufi Order International. Khan appointed Rabia Martin of San Francisco, California, his successor, an appointment not recognized by members in Europe largely because Martin was female. Toward the end of her life, Martin heard of Meher Baba and began to correspond with him. She became convinced that he was the Qutb, that is, the hub of the spiritual universe in Sufi understanding. Though Martin never met Baba, her successor, Ivy Oneita Duce, did. He confirmed her succession, but more importantly, in 1952 during a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Meher Baba presented the group with a new plan contained in a document titled “Chartered Guidance from Meher Baba for the Reorientation of Sufism as the Highway to the Ultimate Universalized.”

Within Sufism Reoriented, the Sufi path begins in submission and obedience to the murshid as the arm of Baba. For the student, there must be a need to know that God exists, to be able to discriminate between the real and the unreal, to be indifferent to externals, and to be ready to gain the six mental attitudes: control over thoughts, outward control, tolerance, endurance, faith, and balance.

Sources

Baba, Meher. Discourses. Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 1987.

———. God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1973.

Davy, Kitty. Love Alone Prevails: A Study of Life with Meher Baba. Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 1981.

Duce, Ivy Oneita. How a Master Works. Walnut Creek, CA: Sufism Reoriented, 1975.

Hopkinson, Tom, and Dorothy Hopkinson. Much Silence: Meher Baba, His Life and Work. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1975.

Ma Yoga Shakti International Mission

114-41 Lefferts Blvd., South Ozone Park, NY 11420

The Ma Yoga Shakti International Mission was founded in 1979 by Ma Yoga Shakti Saraswati, an educator, reformer, philosopher, renunciate, and guru. Her followers have considered her primarily as a loving mother. Saraswati has traveled internationally and established centers in India, England, and the United States and now spends her time traveling between them. In her teachings, presented in a number of books she has written, she emphasizes the unity of bhakti, gyaan, karma, and raja yoga for self-unfoldment and the adaptability of the ancient wisdom to modern life. Her centers offer regular devotional services and yoga and meditation classes, workshops, and retreats.

Membership

In 2008 the mission reported centers in South Ozone Park, New York, and Palm Bay, Florida, as well as in the United Kingdom and India.

Periodicals

Yoga Shakti Mission Newsletter.

Sources

Yogashakti Mission. www.yogashakti.org.

Chetanaschakti, Guru. Guru Pushpanjali. Calcutta: Yogashakti Mission Trust, 1977.

Yogashakti, Ma. Yoog Vashishtha. Gondia, India: Yogashakti Mission, [1970].

Yogashakti Saraswati, Ma. Prayers & Poems from Mother’s Heart. Melbourne, FL: Yogashakti Mission, 1976.

———, trans. Shree Satya Narayana Vrata Katha. Melbourne, FL: Yogashakti Mission, n.d.

Mahayog Foundation

51 E 42nd St. #521, New York, NY 10017

The Mahayog Foundation supports the teaching of Mahayogi Pilot Baba. As a young man Babaji, as he is popularly known, joined the Indian Air Force and as a wing commander fought in India’s 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan. His career in the air force led him to question his life, and after the 1971 war he resigned his commission and took up the renounced life of a yogi. He had concluded that no religion could give absolute peace, nor could any political organization impart peace.

In his search for peace he came to advocate inward exploration. The deeper one goes within, the purer the sources of consciousness that are found. When the center is reached, the individual reaches the center of the universe. Then and there wisdom unfolds and the individual become a realized one, and the self is liberated.

According to Babaji, his work is an enquiry into the ultimate truths that he teaches, including that the soul exists after death and transmigrates to another form of life or dissolves into the universe. He does not see himself as teaching a new religion but as showing his followers a path and offering himself as a bridge leading to the self’s true destination, one’s inner self. The path he outlines leads from “misery to happiness, from bondage to libration, from ignorance to enlightenment, and from this world to yourself.”

Babaji established his primary center in northern India in the Himalayan Mountains. He has several centers in India and two overseas, one in Japan and one in New York, the latter being his one North American outpost.

Membership

Not reported. There is one center in New York City.

Sources

Mahayog Foundation. www.pilotbaba.org/.

Mata Amritanandamayi Center

10200 Crow Canyon Rd., Castro Valley, CA 94552

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, Amritapuri P.O., Kollam DT., Kerala, India 690 525.

The Mata Amritanandamayi Center was established in 1987 as an outgrowth of the worldwide ministry of Mataji “Amma”Amritanandamayi (b. 1953), an Indian spiritual teacher. A devoted worshipper of Krishna from childhood, at the age of seven she began to compose bhajans (devotional songs) to him. She so completely identified with God, that she was able to manifest any aspect or form of the Deity and would assume the mood of Krishna or Devi (the Divine Mother) in order to facilitate devotion. Gradually during the 1970s, people began to recognize Amritanandamayi as a realized (enlightened) soul and her father gave her the family land upon which to build an ashram (religious community). Since 1988, she has built a number of temples, called Brahmastanams or the Abode of the Absolute, in which four deities are installed as part of a single image representing the principle of the Unity of God.

Amritanandamayi teaches a form of bhakti, or devotional practice, built around her singing and meditation. She believes that all religions lead to the same goal; hence, meditation upon any of the prominent deity figures, including Jesus, is acceptable.

In 1987 Amritanandamayi made her first trip to the West, a trip prepared by a small number of Western devotees who had encountered her in India. She tours the United States, Japan, and Australia.

Humanitarian efforts are central to the center and focus on care for the needy. The organization runs an orphanage as well as elderly care homes, and other efforts offer food and health care for those in need.

Membership

In 2008 there were three regional centers in the United States in California, New Mexico, and Michigan, with more than 80 affiliated satsang groups throughout the country. Additional centers are found in Canada, South America, India, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.

Periodicals

Immortal Bliss (Published in the U.S.) • Matruvani (Published in the U.S.).

Sources

Mata Amritanandamayi Center. www.amma.org.

Amritanandamayi, Mataji. Awaken Children! 2 vols. Vallickavu, Kerala, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1989—1990.

———. Bhajanamritam: Devotional Songs. Vallickavu, Kerala, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1987.

Balagopal. The Mother of Sweet Bliss. Vallickavu, Kerala, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1985.

“Holy Woman Brings the Mother Spirit to the West.” Hinduism Today 9, no. 4 (July 1987): 1, 15.

Matri Satsang

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Matri Satsang is an organization of devotees of Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896–1982), one of the most prominent gurus in twentieth-century India. Born Nirmala Sundari in a Bengali Brahmin family, she had little schooling and was married at the age of 13. Five years later she went to live with her husband. Her husband recognized her as an unusual person; as her mystical nature clearly emerged, he became her disciple. Her ecstatic state attracted others, and in 1929 her followers built an ashram (religious community) for her. She began to travel widely around India. A second ashram was built at Dehradun, India, in 1932. As the number of ashrams grew, Shree Shree Anandamayee Sangha was formed to administer them.

Anandamayi Ma did not lecture, but would answer questions put to her by seekers. Her writings consisted mainly of letters answering similar inquiries. Excerpts were later gathered into books. Anandamayi Ma supported traditional Hinduism and had no new message. Disciples seem to have been attracted to her because of the awakenings they had in her presence and the wisdom they attributed to her because of her answers to their questions.

Matri Satsang began in 1974 in Sacramento, California, as a point of focus for North American disciples of Anandamayi Ma. A small group, they see their task as supplying the world with materials, primarily those published in India by the Sangha, that communicate Anandamayi Ma’s presence through her words and the books of those who knew her. Devotees of Anandamayi Ma are scattered around the world.

Sources

Anandamayi Ma, Sri. Matri Vani. 2 vols. Varnasi, India: Shree Shree Anandamayee Charitable Society, 1977.

———. Sad Vani. Calcutta, India: Shree Shree Anandamayee Charitable Society, 1981.

Lipski, Alexander. Life and Teachings of Sri Anandamayi Ma. Delhi, India: Motilal Banaridass, 1977.

Matri Darshan: Ein Photo-Album Uber Shri Ananda Ma. Seegarten, Germany: Mangalam Verlag S. Schang, 1983.

Singh, Khushwant. Gurus, Godmen, and Good People. New Delhi, India: Orient Longman, 1975.

Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies

4130 SW 117th Ave., Ste. 171, Beaverton, OR 97005

The Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies was founded in 1987 by Kailasa Chandra Das (birth name, Mark Goodwin), formerly a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON; see separate entry). The league was established at a time of intense controversy within ISKCON over the role of the leadership status of those individuals who had been appointed initiating gurus by founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The league provides guidance for aspirants so they can come to a point of understanding about the nature of the guru (teacher, spiritual guide) and decide who might be a genuine guru. A bona fide guru must be a self-realized Vaishnava, that is, a devotee of Vishnu, who has realized the Supreme Personality of Godhead (i.e., Krishna).

Members of the league are advised to avoid both the wild card guru, the charismatic figure whose own personality and personal attributes become the center of attention, and the institutional guru, who derives authority from the group in which s/he functions and operates as an agent of the governing body of that institution. The genuine guru, of which Swami Prabhupada is the prime example, derives authority from God, and that authority is manifest in the purity of his/her life.

The league follows the beliefs and practices as transmitted by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Members must be vegetarians and do not use any intoxicating substances. They cannot be associated with ISKCON or gurus or groups that are considered bogus. Kailasa Chandra Das has published several booklets covering the major emphases of the league.

Membership

In 1995 the league reported nine members.

Moksha Foundation

PO Box 2360, Lenox, MA 01240

The Moksha Foundation was founded in 1976 as the Self-Enlightenment Meditation Society by Bishwanath Singh, known by his religious name Tantracharya Nityananda. Nityananda began studying yoga at the age of seven. He became a student of Shri Anandamurti and eventually served as a monk with the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. In 1969 he realized that he was a siddha yogi in his previous incarnation and that he had been reincarnated in this life to teach meditation and yoga. He left the Ananda Marga Yoga Society and began independent work, eventually establishing centers in India and England. He also renounced his vows as a monk and married.

In 1973 Nityananda moved to Boulder, Colorado, and established the Self-Enlightenment Meditation Society. The center served as a residence for several of his closest students. He taught meditation, tantric yoga philosophy, and lathi, a martial art, and offered personal instruction and initiation for his followers. From his Colorado headquarters he regularly journeyed to meet with students in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles.

In 1981 Nityananda traveled to Europe on a speaking tour. While on the Continent, he was invited to lecture in Sweden. After leaving the plane in Stockholm, he disappeared. His body was found several months later; he had been murdered. Mira Sussman, a resident student at the Boulder center, succeeded to leadership of the foundation and has continued the program initiated by Nityananda.

Membership

Not reported. At the time of Nityananda’s death in 1981 he had approximately 50 students in Boulder, with other groups in several U.S. cities. The centers previously founded in London and in Bihar, India, continued, and he regularly visited them.

Periodicals

The Tantric Way.

Mother Meera Society

C.P. 38, Ste-Justine-de-Newton, Quebec, Canada J0P 1T0

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: Mother Meera, Oberdorf 4a, 65599 Dornburg-Thalheim, Germany.

The Mother Meera Society was founded in Canada in the early 1980s by disciples of Mother Meera, an Indian spiritual leader believed by followers to be an incarnation of the Divine Mother, one of several currently present on earth. She was born Kamala Reedy in 1960 in a small village in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. Her family were not religious people and she was given no religious training and had no guru. However, at the age of six she first entered that trance-like state called samadhi. When she was 14, her uncle and leading disciple, B. V. Reddy, noted her spiritual activities and took her to the ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Ponticherry. She told of receiving visionary guidance from Aurobindo and his colleague, the Mother. As might be expected, she was not accepted by many at the ashram, and she left after a short stay and began holding darshan (sessions in which she met with her followers) throughout India.

In 1979 she left India with her uncle for Europe and a side trip to Canada, where the initial Mother Meera Society was formed. In 1983, due to her uncle’s illness, she settled in Thalheim, a small town near Frankfurt, Germany, where she has since resided. Her uncle died in 1985. She made her first trip to the United States in May 1989 to attend a conference at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Mother Meera describes her work as that of the Cosmic Shakti, to bring down the light of Paramatma to prepare humanity for spiritual transformation. Not known for a specific body of teachings, disciples revere her for the transformations and healings they have experienced in her presence. She offers a simple discipline to people: “Remember the Divine in everything you do. If you have time, meditate. Offer everything to the Divine. Everything good or bad, pure or impure. This is the best and quickest way.” Devotion to Mother Meera has especially spread through the writing of Andrew Harvey, a professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has written a book about his encounter with her in the late 1970s.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Mother Meera Darshan Calgary. www.mothermeeradarshancalgary.com.

Adilakshmi. The Mother. 2nd edition. Thalheim Germany: n.p., 1995.

Brown, Mick. The Spiritual Tourist: A Personal Odyssey through the Outer Reaches of Belief. London: Bloomsbury, 1998.

Cox, Christine, and Jeff Cox. “Germany’s Meera.”Hinduism Today 11, 4 (April 1989): 1, 18.

Harvey, Andrew. Hidden Journey. New York: Henry Holt, 1991.

———. Harvey, Andrew. The Return of the Mother. Berkeley, CA: Frog, 1995.

Mother Meera. Answers. 2 vols. Ithaca, NY: Meeramma Publications, 1991.

Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust

c/o N. U. Yoga Ashram, W 7041 Olmstead Rd., Winter, WI 54869

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: N. U. Yoga Ashrama, Gylling, DK 8300 Odder, Denmark.

Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust was founded by Sri Swami Narayanananda (1902–1988) in 1967 in Rishikesh, India. In 1929 he renounced the world, became a monk, and then went to the Himalayas in search of God-realization. After a mental struggle, he attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi (Cosmic Consciousness) in 1933. After this struggle, he remained in seclusion until 1947, when he witnessed the bloodshed between the Hindus and Muslims during the partition of India. He then focused his energies on writing books about religion, philosophy, mind-control, and Kundalini Shakti. He began to work and guide spiritual seekers during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1971 he went to Europe to visit his international headquarters in Denmark.

Narayanananda uses the term “The Universal Religion” for his teachings. This religion is based on his perception of Ultimate Truth and contains both philosophy and practical spiritual advice. It states that there is only one God, which can be compared to the center of a circle, while the many different religions of the world are like the radii of a circle—all ultimately reaching the same goal. With its motto: “Help a man from where he stands. Supplement but never supplant,” it embraces all people irrespective of caste, creed, color, or sex.

The Universal Religion stresses the importance of a moral life, sex sublimation, and mind-control for spiritual growth. It also emphasizes the value of an education, which combines practical, intellectual, and ethical training, and it works to promote understanding between the different religions and ideologies of the world.

The religion is of a monastic order as well as lay disciples. The monks and nuns living in the same ashramas (monasteries) follow the teachings of the founder— they combine meditation and mind control with an active life in society and earn their own livelihood.

Membership

In 1998 the trust had approximately 30 centers in India, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the United States. There are approximately 5,000 members worldwide.

Periodicals

Yogandash; Magazine for the Universal Religion.

Sources

Narayanananda, Swami. The Mysteries of Man, Mind and Mind Functions. N.p., n.d.

———. A Practical Guide to Samadhi. Rishikish, India: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust, 1966.

———. The Primal Power in Man. Rishikish, India: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust, 1970.

———. The Secrets of Mind-Control. Rishikish, India: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust, 1970.

———. The Secrets of Prana, Pranayana, and Yoga-Asana. Gylling, Denmark: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust & Ashrama, 1979.

New Vrindaban Community

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), R.D. 1, Box 319, Moundsville, WV 26041

This rural Hare Krishna Community was founded in 1968. One of its pioneering founders was Keith Ham, son of a Southern Baptist Minister; another was Howard Wheeler, a friend of Ham. They were among an initial group of young American spiritual seekers who encountered A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) in New York in the late 1960s, after they had gone on a spiritual search to India. Prabhupada was beginning the task of establishing his worldwide mission. Believing that Prabhupada was genuine, the young Americans dedicated themselves to him. They received Vaisnava initiation from him, taking on the names Kirtananda Swami Bhaktipada and Hayagriva.

In 1968 Bhaktipada noticed an advertisement offering a lease on 100 acres to anyone willing to start a spiritual commune in West Virginia. He ventured out to Moundsville, eventually signed a lease, and began New Vrindaban, which in turn became part of ISKCON, founded by Prabhupada.

After Prabhupada’s departure to India in 1977, Bhaktipada secured for himself a prominent role within the ranks of ISKCON. He was also the spiritual leader of New Vrindaban, by then a thriving community. The members of the community had turned an intended residence for Prabhupada into a memorial, attracting media coverage. Bhaktipada was New Vrindaban’s de facto singular spiritual leader from the mid-1970s until the beginning of the 1990s, when legal difficulties caught up with him.

During the 1980s, several gurus were expelled and others resigned due to the organization’s standards, particularly in the area of illicit sexual relations and the use of psychedelic drugs. The tension led to demands for reform, and the most intense debate centered upon the role of the guru in relation to Prabhupada. Some members of the governing body commission (GBC) called for a more democratic structure, a lessening of the status of the guru vis-a-vis his disciples, and an end to the acceptance of guru puja (worship) by the current society leaders.

The debate on reform, largely confined within the GBC, became public in 1986 with the publication of the Guru Reform Notebook by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, which demanded reform of the society’s understanding of the guru, especially the elimination of any practices which tended to place current gurus on the same level as Prabhupada (as demonstrated in their receiving guru puja). Bhaktipada quickly emerged as the major antagonist in the debate, arguing that organization and structure must remain as Prabhupada left them. The argument reached a culmination point on March 16, 1987, when the GBC expelled Bhaktipada from ISKCON. The GBC cited four major reasons for the expulsion by claming that Bhaktipada (1) had minimized the position of Phadhupada; (2) had rejected the authority of the GBC (thus destroying the society’s unity); (3) had established temples in areas assigned to other gurus; (4) had, while acting independently of the society’s authority, misrepresented the society to the public.

Bhaktipada answered the charges by noting that he had been merely following the pattern of life established by Prabhupada and the particular mission to which he had been assigned. Further, he noted in his book, On His Order, an answer to the Satsvarupa, that it was the GBC that was guilty of deviating from Prabhupada’s teachings through their reform movement and the re-editing of Prabhupada’s commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita.

While Bhakipada was accusing ISKCON of deviating from the teachings and pattern of life established by Prabhupada, he was in turn accused of also deviating by his adoption of elements from the Christian tradition. He moved to have an organ installed in the temple at New Vrindaban, and members of the community began to wear, at times, brown monk-like habits. ISKCON leaders charged that these changes were far more drastic than those which they had been accused of making.

Except for the issues mentioned above, including those which led to Bhaktipada’s expulsion from the society, New Vrindaban and its subsidiary temples follow the same pattern of worship and belief as the temples and centers of ISKCON. In the wake of the expulsion, New Vrindaban and its aligned centers (mostly in Ohio), having been founded originally as a separate corporation, merely reorganized as an independent entity under its corporate name, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of West Virginia. Almost immediately, leaders from New Vrindaban were sent out to found new centers in such places as Philadelphia and New York City.

The year of Bhaktipada’s leadership of the independent ISKCON of West Virginia was one of intense controversy. He tried to exert leadership in the interfaith community and initially attracted a number of people to New Vrindaban from various religious communities. He also initiated plans for the creation of a large community on the ISKCON property. However, he was continually distracted by controversy. Shortly after his expulsion from ISKCON, authorities raided the community searching for evidence supportive of allegations of fraudulent fund raising and information on the death of a former resident, Charles St. Dennis, killed in 1983, and in the 1986 murder of vocal critic Stephen Bryant. Earlier in 1985, Bhaktipada was almost killed when a former devotee attacked him.

A variety of court actions followed, including Bhaktipada being found not guilty of arson in a trial in which he was charged with setting fire to a building owned by the community in order to collect the insurance. And a follower, Thomas Dreshner, was found guilty in connection with the murder of St. Dennis. Finally, on August 28, 1996, Bhaktipada pled guilty to a racketeering charge that included conspiracy to murder (Stephen Bryant). Dreshner, who had previously denied Bhaktipada’s involvement in any illegal acts, eventually turned and offered testimony against him. Bhaktipada began serving a 20-year prison term in September 1996, a sentence since reduced to 12 years. In the wake of his conviction, as well as revelation of his breaking his vows of sexual abstinence, there was a move to integrate ISKCON of West Virginia back to the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.

In 2000 the community was accepted again as part of ISKCON and allowed representation in the worldwide leadership council. New Vrindaban’s management has focused on reintegrating the community into the global Hare Krishna network while working to rectify illegal activities and other mistakes of Bhaktipada’s leadership. Current residents prefer to focus on the primary role that Swami Prabhupada played in bringing Krishna Consciousness from India to the West.

The reputation that New Vrindaban had enjoyed of being the first farming community in ISKCON has yielded to the community’s function as a place for spiritual holiday among the community of Indian immigrants to the United States. The community claims to host more overnight staying guests than all the other temples in North America. A primary draw is the memorial to Swami Prabhupada, referred to as “The Palace of Gold.” Replacing the previous central communal ownership of all property is a more natural system of individual or family ownership.

The community celebrates many festivals that are a distinct feature of India’s 5,000-year-old culture. The community’s festivals provide vegetarian feasts for which Hare Krishnas are famous; the community does not allow alcohol, tobacco, or nonvegetarian foods.

Membership

The community extends various categories of membership to persons not resident at New Vrindaban. Most contributing members are Indian professionals and businesspeople. There are approximately 7,000 individuals on the community mailing list.

Periodicals

New Vrindaban Today.

Remarks

Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada and New Vrindaban have been the object of intense controversy which began in the early 1980s, when charges of drug dealing and the stockpiling of weapons were published in newspapers and magazines across the United States. In October 1985, a fringe member of the society attempted to murder Bhaktipada with a lead bar. Then in 1986 a former member, Stephen Bryant, came to West Virginia and threatened Bhaktipada’s life. In May, Bryant was murdered in Los Angeles. Following Bryant’s murder, the local sheriff called for a federal probe of New Vrindaban. It was convened in September 1986, just a few weeks before two ex-members, Daniel Reed and Thomas Dreshner, went on trial for the murder of a man who raped Reed’s wife. Both ex-members were convicted. Reed was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter and he received one to five years. Dreshner, an accessory after the fact (he assisted Reed in burying the body), was given a life sentence. Later Dreshner was accepted back as a full member by Bhaktipada, who accepted him into the renounced or sanyassin order. Subsequently, Dreshner has frequently but incorrectly been cited in the press as a swami (teacher) and spokesperson for the group.

As a result of the federal investigation, Bhaktipada was indicted for setting fire to a building owned by the group in order to collect the insurance. At a trial in December 1987, he was acquitted of all charges.

Embarrassed by the events at New Vrindaban, the GBC included the accusations and subsequent federal probe as a secondary reason for Bhaktipada’s expulsion.

Sources

New Vrindaban Community. http://newvrindaban.com

Bhaktipada, Kirtanananda Swami. Christ and Krishna. Moundsville, WV: Bhaktipada Books, 1985.

———. Eternal Love. Moundsville, WV: Bhaktipada Books, 1985.

———. “A Community Struggles for Reinstatement.” Hare Krishna World 5,5. (January/February 1997).

———. On His Order. Moundsville, WV: Bhakti Books, 1987.

———. The Song of God. Moundsville, WV: Bhaktipada Books, 1984.

Shinn, Larry D. The Dark Lord. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1987.

Nityananda Institute, Inc.

PO Box 13310, Portland, OR 97232

Swami Rudrananda (1928–1973), born Albert Rudolph, was a spiritual seeker who had participated in groups following the methods of Georgei Gurdjieff and Subud, and later with the shankaracharya of Puri, prior to traveling to India. There, in 1958, he met Swami Nityananda (d. 1961) and his student Swami Muktananda (1908–1982). In these two swamis he found an end to his quest. He also arranged Muktananda’s first visit to America in 1970 and helped launch his movement. However, after studying first with Nityananda and later with Muktananda for 15 years, he broke with Muktananda in 1971 and founded the Shree Gurudev Rudrananda Yoga Ashram. The teachings followed essentially the Saivite teachings of Nityananda and Muktananda, both of whom emphasized the role of the guru who gave shaktipat to awaken the kundalini. Kundalini is the cosmic power believed to be resting dormant like a coiled snake at the base of the spine. Its awakening allows the power to travel up the spine to the crown of the head, thus producing enlightenment.

Rudrananda founded a string of ashrams across the United States and Europe and wrote one book, Spiritual Cannibalism, published within months of his death in an airplane accident. The largest and most substantial remnant of Rudrananda’s following was organized under Swami Chetanananda, head of the ashram in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1971. Several years later Chetanananda moved his headquarters to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1993 to Portland, Oregon.

The ashram is a community of disciples living the practical spiritual life under the direction of Swami Chetanananda. The Nityananda Institute is a meditation center whose aim is to make the spiritual life accessible to westerners. The Rudra Press is the publishing arm of the organization.

Membership

In 2008 the institute was based in Portland, Oregon, with meditation centers in Santa Monica, California, New York City, Boston, Massachusetts, and Oslo, Norway. A retreat and research center was located in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2002 there were approximately 2,000 people involved with the ashram and centers.

Periodicals

Rudra. • Institute News.

Sources

Nityananda Institute. www.nityanandainstitute.org.

Chetanananda, Swami. Songs from the Center of the Well. Cambridge, MA: Rudra Press, 1983.

Hatengdi, M. U. Nityananda, the Divine Presence. Cambridge, MA: Rudra Press, 1984.

———, and Swami Chetanananda. Nitya Sutras. Cambridge, MA: Rudra Press, 1985.

Nevai, Lucia. “Rudi, The Spiritual Legacy of an American Original.” Yoga Journal no. 65 (July/August 1985): 36–38, 68–71.

Rudrananda, Swami. Spiritual Cannibalism. New York: Links, 1973.

Oneness Movement North America

PO Box 35507, Monte Sereno, CA 95030

The Oneness Movement has grown from the vision of two Indian spiritual teachers, Sri Bhagavan and Sri Amma, a husband-wife team viewed by their followers as a single consciousness operating in two bodies. Their vision is to awaken humanity to our oneness and unity with the divine, and to elevate us to an altered state of consciousness—an awakened state of “oneness.” To this end, they founded the Oneness University; the Oneness Movement consists of a group of independent but interconnected national affiliates of the Oneness University.

The primary means of spreading the experience of oneness is the Oneness Blessing (also known as Oneness Deeksha or Diksha), during which a transfer of divine energy occurs. Over time, that energy brings about a state of oneness and initiates a neurobiological change in the brain. Once the blessing is complete, the senses are freed from the interference of the mind, leading to new clarity of perception and feelings of joy, calmness, and oneness.

The Oneness Blessing is performed by people who have been trained at the Oneness University in India or Fiji, who are called Oneness facilitators or Oneness Blessing givers.

The Oneness Movement was brought to North America by Sri Raniji, a Malawian disciple of Sri Bhagwan and Sri Amma. As a young woman Sri Raniji met Anandagiri, one of Sri Bhagavan’s Oneness facilitators, who gave her the Oneness Blessing. She later met Sri Bhagwan and Sri Amma, and impressed with their teachings, stayed in India to work with them. She eventually became a dasa, or lay monk, and Sri Bhagavan appointed her the spiritual leader of the Oneness Movement in North America, which includes not only the United States and Canada but also Australia, New Zealand, and Italy.

The Onenness Movement holds annual conferences that bring together large groups to pray for oneness. In 2008 a large Oneness temple in India, conceived as a temple for all religions, was nearing completion.

Membership

In 2008 the movement claimed more than 100 million members in more than 50 countries. In the United States there are more than 1,000 Oneness facilitators, and in Canada more than 200.

Sources

Oneness Movement. https://www.onenessmovement.org/index.cfm.

Arjagh, Arjuna. Awakening into Oneness: The Power of Blessing in the Evolution of Consciousness. Boulder, CO: Sounds Good, 2007.

Windrider, Kara. Deeksha: The Fire from Heaven. Nocato, CA: New World Library, 2006.

Parmarth Niketan

c/o Hindu Jain Temple, 615 Illini Dr., Monroeville, PA 15146

Parmarth Niketan is an ashram in Rishikish, India, that serves as the headquarters of the Swami Shukdebanand Trust, an Indian spiritual community founded in 1942 by Pujya Swami Shukdevanandji Maharaj (1901–1965). In the twenty-first century, Parmarth Niketan extended its influence to the West through the activities of its president, H. H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj. Trained in the ashram from childhood for his leadership role, at the age of 17 Chidanand was sent from Rishikish to complete his education. He emerged with master’s degrees in Sanskrit and philosophy. After assuming leadership of the ashram, Swami Chidanand has emphasized his beliefs in the unity and harmony of reality, especially as they relate to the many paths to God that are available to humanity. His beliefs have made him a leader in interfaith work, and he has participated in a number of internationals conferences, such as the Parliament of World Religions gatherings (1993 and 1999), the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the United Nations (2000), the World Council of Religious Leaders at the United Nations in Bangkok (2002), and the Global Youth Peace Summit at the United Nations in New York (2006).

In his many travels, Swami Chidanand has inspired the development of a number of temples in Australia, Europe, and North America, among the most notable being the first Hindu-Jain temple in America, located in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Swami Chidanand serves as the spiritual head of this temple, which is dedicated to providing a means for unity between Hindus and Jains across North America. Begun in 1981, the temple was constructed by the Hindu Temple Society of North America. Under Swami Chidanand’s influence, the temple changed its name from Hindu Temple to Hindu Jain Temple in 1986. It was completed in 1990 and now serves the Indian American community in the Greater Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Hindu Jain Temple. www.hindujaintemple.org/.

Parmarth Niketan. www.parmarth.com/.

Prana Yoga Ashram

Yogalayam, 1723 Alcatraz Ave., Berkeley, CA 94703

The Prana Yoga Student Center was founded by Swami Sivalingam, formerly with the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. Swami Sivananda Saraswati established the academy at Rishikish on the Ganges River. Sivalingam began his stay at Sivananda’s center in 1959. In 1962 he began his international work by bringing the yoga teachings first to Japan and then to Hong Kong, where he established several Sivananda Yoga Centers. He moved to the United States in 1973 and successively founded the Prana Yoga Foundation (1974), the Prana Yoga Ashram (1975), the Prana Yoga Center (1976), and the Ayaodhyanagar Retreat (1977). In 1975 he extended his work to Vancouver, British Columbia. As a result of this work and subsequent travels, he has established a string of centers that ring the globe from India to Japan, to North America to Denmark, and Spain.

Sivalingam follows the yogic teachings and practices of Sivananda with an emphasis upon hatha yoga asanas (positions) and the practice of pranayama (precise breath control). Through this practice, prana, or energy, is manifested and controlled and leads to purification of the nervous system and inner spiritual balance.

Membership

Not reported. In 1980 there were six centers in the United States and nine centers in other countries.

Periodicals

Prana Yoga Life. Send orders to Box 1037, Berkeley, CA 94701.

Sources

Yogalayam Prana Yoga Ashram. www.yogalayam.org.

Sivalingam, Swami. Wings of Divine Wisdom. Berkeley, CA: Prana Yoga Ashram, 1977.

Pranayana Institute

PO Box 40731, Albuquerque, NM 87196

The Pranayana Institute was founded by Sankara Saranam, a writer, philosopher, and proponent of pranayama (sense introversion), a yoga practice that consists of various techniques of regulated breathing and concentration. Practicing pranayama is said to confer various positive results, including a calm, balanced, and focused mind, increased vitality, and longevity. Pranayama also is believed to awaken the brain and the cerebrospinal nerve centers to their limitless potential. Many of great spiritual and intellectual figures have been adept in pranayama, or something closely resembling it.

Saranam researched pranayana for many years and in 1997 produced a book, Yoga and Judaism, in which he claimed that asceticism and pranayama are evident in the practices of the early Hebrews. More recently he authored God without Religion (2005), which gets to the heart of the Pranayana Institute by offering an alternative to the divergent and divisive cultural views of God—one drawn from the experience of personal introspection and pranayana.

Saranam, an ascetic and mystic with a background in yoga, founded the Pranayama Institute to further his belief in pranayana and to make the basic techniques available to all at little or no cost. Complementing the institute is the Whirlwind Community, where people may come to study and practice pranayama in an environmentally friendly social context.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Pranayana Institute. www.pranayama.org/.

Saranam, Sankara. God without Religion: Questioning Centuries of Accepted Truths. East Gillajay, GA: Pranyana Institute, 2005.

———. Yoga and Judaism. Astrologue, 1997.

Raj-Yoga Math and Retreat

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Raj-Yoga Math and Retreat is a small monastic community formed in 1974 by Fr. Satchakrananda Bodhisattvaguru. Satchakrananda began the practice when he experienced the raising of the kundalini, an internal energy pictured in Hindu thought as a snake coiled and resting at the base of the spine that, upon awakening, rises to the crown chakra (psychic center at the top of the head). That event produced an awareness of Satchakrananda’s divine heritage. Following that event, he spent a short time in a Trappist monastery, attended Western Washington University, then became coordinator for the Northwest Free University, where he taught yoga in the early 1970s.

In 1973 Satchakrananda was “mystically” initiated as a yogi by the late Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887–1963), the founder of the Divine Life Society, through a trilogy of “female Matas” at a retreat he attended on the Olympic (Washington) Peninsula. The following year, with a small group of men and women, he founded the math (monastery). In 1977, he was ordained a priest by Abp. Herman Adrian Spruit of the Church of Antioch (see separate entry) and has attempted to use both Hindu and Christian traditions at the math. Spiritual disciplines include the regular celebrations of the mass, though the major practice offered is the Jaya Yoga Sadhana, consisting of the successive practice of japa (mantra) yoga, meditation, kriyas (cleansings), mudras, asanas (hatha yoga postures), and pranayam (disciplined breathing). Jaya yoga allows practitioners to become aware of their divine nature.

The math is located in the foothills of Mt. Baker overlooking the Nooksuck River near Deming, Washington. It accepts resident students for individual instruction but offers a variety of retreats/workshops for nonresidents. For those unable to travel to the math for instruction, Satchakrananda has put together a jaya yoga workshop packet.

Membership

The resident community at the math fluctuates between 2 and 12. Several hundred individuals are associated with the math through an oblate order of men and women.

Sources

Letters to Satchakrananda. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1977.

Satchakrananda, Yogi. Coming and Going, The Mother’s Drama. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1975.

———. Thomas Merton’s Dharma. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1986.

———. To Create No Freedom. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1983.

Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Mission

96 Ave. B, New York, NY 10009

The Ramakrishananda Yoga Vedanta Mission was founded in 2003 by Swami Ramakrishnananda, an American citizen of Indian heritage born in Chile in 1958. Ramakrishnananda’s religious quest began with a spontaneous mystical experience that occurred when he was only eight years old. He was eventually led to VRINDA, an organization that followed the bhakti (devotional) yoga originally brought to the West by A. C. Bhaphktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977), founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. However, his search would later lead him to a number of the other Indian gurus working in the West, including Swami Vishnu Devananda (1929–1993), from whom he received his first initiation and was given the religious name Ramakrishna. Ramakrishnananda also studied Vishnu Devananda’s integral yoga teachings and was recognized as a Yoga Acarya or Master Acarya of Yoga in 1989. He later studied with Brahmananda Sarasvati (d. 1993) of Ananda Ashram and Swami Jyotirmayananda (b. 1931), founder of the Yoga Research Foundation in Miami. In 1991, he was ordained as a brahmana by Kirtanananda Swami of the Divine Life Society in India. Four years later Swami Jyotirmayananda received him into the renounced life, as a sannyasi, under the name of Ramakrishnananda Swami.

In 1995, Ramakrishnananda met and received initiation from His Divine Grace Sri Baba Brahmananda Maharaja (b. 1931). It is from Brahmananda Maharaja that he received what he considers his primary lineage. Brahmananda Maharaja was a disciple of His Divine Grace Bhagavan Mastarama Babaji Maharaja (d. 1986), a renowned siddha yogi. In the end, however, the Vaishnava devotional yoga with which he started reasserted itself and Ramakrishnananda sought reconfirmation of his renounced monk vows from a Vaishnava sannyasi in the Ashram of VRINDA, His Divine Grace B. A. Paramadvaiti Swami Maharaja.

In 2000, Swami Ramakrishnananda moved to the United States, where three years later he founded the Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Mission and began accepting disciples for study in the ancient Vedic tradition. The center of the Mission is the Ramakrishnananda Mandir, a traditional Hindu Temple in New York City. The temple attempts to serve the needs of a broad range of Hindus. The central hall of the larger temple contains smaller temples for Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, Lord Hanuman, Durga Ma, Kali Ma, Lakshmi Ma, and Saraswati Ma and a separate hall with the temple to Lord Krishna. The temple celebrates all the major Hindu holidays and festivals.

Since the opening of the New York City temple, a second center has been opened in Monroe, New York, and there are also two affiliated centers in the Dominican Republic.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Mission. www.ramakrishnananda.com/.

Ramakrishnananda has written several books, the texts of which are posted on the Mission’s Web page.

S. A. I. Foundation

3491 Clover Oak Drive, San Jose, CA 95148

The first miracle related to Satya Sai Baba (b. 1926) concerned a mysterious cobra found under his bed, proclaiming, say his followers, Sai Baba’s role as Sheshiasa, Lord of Serpents. As a child he worked miracles for his classmates, producing objects out of nowhere, a favorite practice still continued.

In 1940, he fell into a coma that lasted for two months. Upon awakening suddenly, he announced, “I am Sai Baba of Shirdi.” Sai Baba of Shirdi (1856?–1918) was an Indian holy man who had left behind a large following who still venerated him and observed his teachings. Satya Sai Baba, by his statement, claimed to be his reincarnation. Followers assert his ability to recall conversations between individuals who were disciples of the original Sai Baba.

The thrust of the Sai Baba Movement is veneration of Sai Baba and recounting the miracle stories about him. Teachings are mainline Hinduism with emphasis on four aspects—Dharma Sthapana (establishing the faith on a firm foundation), Vidwathposhana (fostering scholarship), Vedasamrakshana (preservation of the Vedas), and Bhaktirakshana (protection of the devotees from secularism and materialism).

The Indian headquarters in Prasanthi Nilayam (Home of the Supreme Peace) are the focus of the Sai Baba movement. Here each Thursday devotees gather for a darshan or vision of Sai Baba. Special darshans are held during the Dasara holidays in October and his birthday celebration in November.

Interest in Sai Baba in America began with a set of lectures given in 1967 at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Movies of Prasanthi Nilayam were shown by Indra Devi, who had recently visited Sai Baba. The movement spread during the 1970s and groups have formed across the United States.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Sathya Sai Newsletter. Send orders to 1800 E Garvey Ave., West Covina, CA 91791.

Sources

S.A.I. Foundation. www.thesaifoundation.org.

Brooks, Tal. Avatar of Night. New Delhi, India: Tarang Paperbacks, 1984.

Hislop, John. Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba. San Diego: Birth Day Publishing Company, 1978.

Lessons for Study Circle. Prasanti Nilayam, India: World Council of Sri Sathya Sai Organizations, n.d.

Manual of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Dal and Guidelines for Activities. Bombay: World Council of Sri Sathya Sai Organizations, 1979.

McMartin, Grace T., ed. A Recapitulation of Sathya Sai Baba’s Divine Teachings. Hyderabad, India: Avon Printing Works, 1982.

Murphet, Howard. Sai Baba, Man of Miracles. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1976.

Sandweiss, Samuel H. Sai Baba, The Holy Man…and the Psychiatrist. San Diego, CA: Birth Day Publishing, 1975.

Sacha Dham Ashram

c/o Ganesh Foundation, 1750 30th St., PMB No. 137, Boulder, CO 80301

Alternate Address

International Center: Laxman Jhulla, P.O. Tapovan Sarai Pin 249192, Tehri Garhwal, U.P., India.

Sacha Dham Ashram was founded by Maharajji Hans Raj Swami (b. 1924), an advaita vedanta teacher. As a guru, like Ramana Maharshi, he gives few verbal teachings, inviting devotees merely to sit in his presence instead. In the silence they can surrender to the unconditional love of the guru and contact the limitless love of Being itself. The reality of Maharaj, as he is usually referred to by his disciples, was brought to the West in the early 1990s by Shantimayi (b. 1950), an American woman who discovered him and sat at his feet for seven years. These sessions were usually accompanied with a period of chanting and the singing of bhajans (holy songs). She was sent to the West as Maharaj’s spiritual ambassador, and as a result a number of Europeans and Americans began to find their way to the Indian ashram, and from their visits a community of disciples has begun to appear in the West. These remain small, as the essence of the devotion is sitting in the presence of the guru, which can only be done at the ashram in India.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Shanti Mayi. www.shantimayi.com/ashram/sachadham.html.

Cushman, Anne, and Jerry Jones. From Here to Nirvana: The Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual India. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998. 399 pp.

Sacred Space Yoga Sanctuary

830 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94710

The Sacred Space Yoga Sanctuary was founded in 2001 by Swami Khecaranatha (born Steven Ott). Ott had been a student of Swami Rudrananda (1928–1973), the founder of the Nityananda Institute. After only a year of study, Rudrananda recognized Ott as a teacher in 1972. When Rudrananda died in 1973, Ott continued to live in the ashram through several relocations under Swami Chetananda, Rudrananda’s successor. Ott left the ashram in 2001 and founded the new sanctuary as a independent center continuing Rudrananda’s system of kundalini yoga.

In 2002 Ott took his sannyasa (renounced life) vows in the presence of Ma Yoga Shakti, a swami who heads centers in New York and Florida. She gave him the name Swami Khecaranatha (“moving in the fullness of the divine heart”). Recognizing that in most Hindu traditions sannyasa requires a divestment of worldly things and assuming the role of a monk, Khecaranatha noted that he took the vows as a tantric yogi, understanding renunciation to be an inner state that might take different manifestations. For Swami Khecaranatha, it means living as a householder.

Swami Khecaranatha continues the kundalini yoga teachings passed through Swami Muktananda (1908–1982) from Swami Nityananda (c. 1897–1961) to Rudrananda to him. He offers to his disciples shaktipat, a transmission of energy to awaken the kundalini energy. The main center at the sanctuaryis the rudramandir, where spirit takes up residence and destroys all pain and suffering. Besides regular weekly meetings at the rudramandir, the sanctuary offers periodical retreats and workshops.

In 2008 there was one center of the Sacred Space Yoga Sanctuary, but Swami Khecaranatha had begun to train teachers to form new centers.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Sacred Space Yoga. sacredspaceyogasanctuary.com/.

Sadhana Ashram

2414 Keystone Ct., Boulder, CO 80304-1936

The Sadhana Ashram dates to 1981 and a vision of the Divine Mother imparted to Shankar Das, an American yogi. Shankar Das spent several years in India as a seeker, and many of the teachers he met encouraged him to establish an ashram, originally in Tennessee, then California, and now Colorado.

Shankar Das teaches an eclectic spiritual outlook drawn from a variety of Indian religious traditions. He acknowledges inspiration from Sai Baba, Swami Muktananda, Sri Ramakrishna, and Sri Anandamayi Ma. He has stated that “Many are the Ways,” and he holds that any one aspect of God represents all aspects. Shankar Das operates as a Mahashakti yoga master and practices shaktipat, the spiritual teacher’s conferring a form of spiritual “power” or awakening on a disciple/student. In this case, the power is awakened through the stimulation of the kundalini (an unconscious, instinctive or erotic force or energy) believed to lie dormant at the base of the spine. When awakened, the kundalini travels upward along the spinal column and brings enlightenment.

The daily routine at the ashram begins early in the morning with chanting, meditation, and shaktipat. Sunday is dedicated to the Divine Mother (often seen as synonymous with the kundalini energy) and often includes a fire ceremony (yajna) and feast. During weekdays residents scatter to secular jobs in the area but begin and end the day in spiritual activity. The ashram’s diet is vegetarian.

The Acharya Training Program is for formal practitioners of this order who have been with Shankaracharya for more than a year; it covers all aspects of teaching in this tradition, including philosophy, mantras, pujas/fire ceremony, biography/ashram history, teachers/psychology, shaktipat/kundalini (including diet and meditation aids), basic Hindu mythology, the worship of Chandi (the supreme Goddess of Devi Mahatmya), daily practice, holy days, spiritual texts and references, and the science of Tantra. There is no set time span for the course of study; the rate of completion varies with each student’s pace of assimilation of the material.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Sadhana Ashram. www.sadhanaashram.org

Saeejis Temple of Peace

5627 Lexington Ave., No. 6, Los Angeles, CA 90038-2232

The Saeejis Temple of Peace is a small Hindu organization founded in Los Angeles in 1977 by Govindram T. Lathi, an Indian American teacher known to his followers as Gurudev Saeeji or, simply, Saeeji. His goal is to fill the spiritual void of seekers left unfulfilled by the material blandishments and diversions of contemporary high-technology societies. He offers prayer, meditation, and yoga as the solutions to their needs.

Although his organization is small, Saeeji has developed plans for a large retreat center in southern California that will replicate the spiritual atmosphere available at the sacred ashrams of India.

Membership

Not reported.

Sahaja Yoga Center

4565 Sherman Oaks Ave., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-3011

Alternate Address

56 Cedars Ave., Walthamstow, London E17 7QN, England.

Among the fastest-growing Hindu-inspired movements in Europe and the United States is Sahaja Yoga, as taught by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Born on March 21, 1923, into a Christian family in Chindawara, India, she is a direct descendant of the royal Shalivahana dynasty. She is married to the retired secretary general of the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations.

Devi’s career as a guru grew from her disappointment with some of the other gurus who had come to the West from India. She knew she had been born a realized soul, and she sought a means to bring realization to masses of people. In her frustration, on the evening of May 5, 1970, she sat all evening under a bilva tree. During this time her crown chakra (believed to be at the top of the head) opened and the kundalini force (the cosmic power believed to be resting like a coiled snake at the base of the spine) began to rise. She then felt ready to begin her work.

Her followers believe that Nirmala Devi is connected with the power of the life source. She offers self-realization as the starting point rather than the end or goal of the practice of yoga or austerities. When one experiences self-realization, the kundalini energy rises. In her personal appearances Devi attempts to bring self-realization to her audiences. She also offers a meditation technique for those unable to be physically present. The meditation is done before one of her pictures.

Sahaja Yoga spread from centers in Delhi, India, and London, England, especially during the 1980s. This practice came to North America in the mid-1980s. Centers have opened across the United States and in Canada: in Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1989 Devi made her first trip to Russia and Eastern Europe.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Nirmala Yoga. Available from 43 Banglow Rd., Delhi 110007, India.

Sources

Devi, Shri Mataji Nirmala. Sahaja Yoga. Delhi, India: Nirmala Yoga, 1982.

Mathur, Rakesh. “The Russians’Love for Yoga: Nirmala Devi Shares Her Adventure.” Hinduism Today 12, no. 10 (October 1990): 1, 7. Available from www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1990/10/1990-10-03.shtml.

Sahaja Yoga Center. www.sahajayoga.org/

Saiva Siddhanta Church

107 Kaholalete, Kapaa, HI 96745

The Saiva Siddhanta Church, originally known as the Subramuniya Yoga Order, was founded by Master Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927–2001), a native of California who traveled to Sri Lanka and in 1949 was initiated by a guru, Jnaniguru Yaganathan, more popularly known as Siva Yogaswami. He returned to the United States and spent some years following his sadhana (spiritual discipline). In 1957 he founded the Subramuniya Yoga Order and opened the Christian Yoga Church in San Francisco. He founded a periodical, Christian Yoga World; developed a radio program, the “Christian Yoga Hour”; and authored a correspondence course. Other centers were founded in Redwood City, California, and Reno, Nevada, and an ashram was opened in Virginia City, Nevada. During the 1960s, all remnants of Christianity, which had earlier been woven into his teachings, were jettisoned in favor of the Saivite Hinduism of Subramuniya’s guru. The Subramuniya Yoga Order became known as the Wailua University of Contemporary Arts; in 1973 its name changed again, this time to the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order, and in the late 1970s it took its current name, the Saiva Siddhanta Church.

The teachings of the church derive from the Vedas, the ancient Saivite scriptures: the Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva. The church also draws on the Saiva Agamas (the authoritative practical scripture of Saivism) and the Tirumantiram, written by Saint Tirumulkar approximately 2,000 years ago. The latter volume is written in Tamil (not Sanskrit) and is a summary of Saivism. The teachings have been passed through a lineage of teachers (the Siva Yogaswami Guru Paramparai) to Yogaswami and Subramuniya; since November 12, 2001, the main bearer of the doctrine has been Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswani.

The church is built around the worship of Siva, known as the only absolute reality, both immanent and transcendent. Siva is worshipped under the forms of the Siva Lingam, Ardhanarisava (as Siva/Sakti in whom all apparent opposites are reconciled), and Nataraja, the Divine Dancer. Siva created the other deities and the human soul, but not the essence of the soul, which is eternally one with God. This essence is the timeless, formless, spaceless Self—Parasivam. Realization of this self is the ultimate goal of existence. Dharma is Siva’s divine law, which governs creation.

The soul is immortal but veiled by the bonds of ignorance (anava), the consequences of thoughts and deeds (karma), and illusions of matter (maya). In order to continue its spiritual evolution, the soul periodically reincarnates in a physical body. It is the human task to follow the established dharma (pattern) in his/her personal and social life. The doctrine also encourages good conduct, as summarized in the yamas (codes of conduct) and niyamas (observances or rituals) of classical yoga.

The communal life of Saivites centers on the temples of Siva, considered the abodes of the deity. One such temple has been constructed in Hawaii on a 458-acres estate that also houses the church’s headquarters. Here puja, the invocation of Siva and the other deities and an expression of love for Siva, is offered daily. Most homes also have a home shrine where the deity is invoked.

The church is headed by Bodhinatha and the Saiva Swami Sangam, the ordained priesthood of 15 swamis, all of whom live at the Hawaiian monastery. Swamis train for 12 years before qualifying to join the order of sannyas by taking lifetime vows of poverty, purity (chastity), renunciation, confidence, and obedience.

In 1970 land was purchased in Hawaii on the island of Kauai for a temple and headquarters complex, which also houses the theological seminary. One education facility, the Himalayan Academy, distributes the San Marga Master Course, a correspondence course for new and prospective members, as well as the academy’s periodical, Hinduism Today. In 1994 the Hindu Heritage Endowment was created to support Hindu institutions and projects worldwide. In 2002 it held funds in excess of $4 million. A daily chronicle of the church’s activities is available at www.gurudeva.org.

Membership

In 2002 the church reported 700 tithing families as members, 7,000 students with various levels of commitment, and 125,000 readers of its magazine. There were 32 missions in eight countries: the United States, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, and Germany.

Educational Facilities

Himalayan Academy, Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, 107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii.

Periodicals

Hinduism Today.

Sources

Saiva Siddhanta Church. www.himalayanacademy.com/ssc/

Saiva Dharma Shastras. Kappa, HI: Siddhanta Press, 1986.

Siva’s Cosmic Dance. San Francisco: Himalayan Academy, [1983].

Subramuniya, Master. Beginning to Meditate. Kapaa, HI: Wailua University of Contemplative Arts, 1972.

———. Raja Yoga. San Francisco: Comstock House, 1973.

———. The Self God. San Francisco: Tad Robert Gilmore and Company, 1971.

———. Yoga’s Forgotten Foundation. Kapaa, HI, n.d.

Subramuniya, Sr. Gems of Cognition. San Francisco: Christian Yoga Publications, 1958.

The Sambodh Society, Inc.

c/o Swami Bodhananda, Spiritual Director, 6363 N 24th St., Kalamazoo, MI 49004

The Sambodh Society is the American branch of the Sambodh Foundation, an Advaita Vedanta organization based in India and founded by H. H. Swami Bodhananda Saraswati, a teacher of Vedanta and meditation in the tradition of Shankaracharya. A graduate in economics at Christ College, Irinjalkuda, Kerala, India, Saraswati forsook graduate studies to wander the Himalayan Mountains on a spiritual quest. Upon finally settling down, he joined the Saraswati order, one of 10 sannyasa (monastic) orders established by Shankaracharya.

Bodhananda began his teaching work in 1978 and a decade later was offered the opportunity to establish a teacher training school called Sandeepani in Kerala. From that beginning he went on to found the Sambodh Foundation (1991), which serves as an umbrella organization for a set of ashrams and related organizations through which Bodhananda’s students receive spiritual training and engage in service to the community at large.

Swami Bodhananda began his mission in America in 1997 with an initial visit to New York, Michigan, Illinois, and California. Before he returned to India, a group of devotees incorporated the Sambodh Society, established to teach meditation and Vedanta according to Swami Bodhananda’s principles. Land outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, was purchased the next year for a temple and American headquarters. Bodhananda now visits America and Canada annually.

Drawing on his college work, Bodhananda has supplemented the traditional perspectives of Advaita Vedanta with some unique contemporary teachings that integrate traditional Vedantic values with modern economics and corporate management philosophy. Through these teachings he offers a means for students to hold to the Vedantic ideal of remaining inwardly detached even as one is active in the world.

Membership

The Sambodh Society has two centers: one in Michigan and one in California.

Sources

Sambodh Society. www.sambodh.com/.

Bodhananda, Swami. The Gita and Management. New Delhi: Bluejay Books, 2003.

———. Indian Management and Leadership. New Delhi: Srishti Publishers & Distributors, 2007.

———. Lectures on Vedanta Philosophy. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007.

Sant Shri Asarmaji Ashram

c/o Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram, 45 Texas Rd., Matawan, NJ 07747

The Sant Shri Asarmaji Ashram was founded in 1971 by Param Pujya Sant Shri Asaramji, generally referred to affectionately as Bapu. Bapu was born in the early 1904s in what is now Pakistan, but following the partition of India in 1947, he moved with his parents to Gujarat. As a youth he was drawn to meditation, at which he spent many hours. Following his father’s death, he assumed financial responsibility for his family and was eventually married, though he wanted to live a life apart and to meditate. Bapu was still a young man when he renounced his family life and moved to the Himalayas as a wandering student. He eventually found a place at the ashram of Swami Shri Lilashahaji Maharaj at Rishikish, and later at the ashram of Shri Lalji Maharaj on the banks of the river Narmada at Moti Koral. Bapu was 23 years old when he finally attained Samadhi (control over consciousness) while sitting with Sad Gurudev Lilashahji Maharaj in Mumbai (Bombay).

After seven years of wandering, Bapu returned to Gujarat and settled at a spot at Motera on the Sabarmati River. A short time later, some devotees constructed a small room in which he could live. The reputation of this meditating renunciate spread, and hundreds and then thousands of people began to come to Motera to see him. The original room became the seed from which, beginning in 1971, a large ashram developed. By 2000, there were over a hundred affiliated ashrams operating across India. Some of the ashrams have Maun Mandirs (a temple for silent spiritual practice) that provide space for serious practitioners to enjoy complete seclusion for seven or more days at a time.

Bapu has emerged as a teacher of Kundalini Yoga and during gatherings will impart shaktipat to followers. Shaktipat is seen as a bestowing of divine love and the transmission of Divine Energy, allowing the student to begin to work with his own kundalini energy.

Bapu operates out of the pluralistic religious environment of modern India and emphasizes the existence of One Supreme Conscious in every human being. He downplays the differences between Hindu, Muslim, Jain, and Christian beliefs.

Through the 1990s, the movement spread across India and overseas to Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. As it grew, Sant Shri Asarmaji Ashram developed a number of social programs to deal with hunger, disaster relief, education, and medical care. The group also supports a nursing home for the elderly.

Membership

Not reported. In 2008, Sant Shri Asarmaji Ashram had 21 centers of activity in the United States and 2 in Canada.

Periodicals

Rishi Prasad, Amdavad, Gujarat, India.

Sources

Sant Shri Asaramji Ashram. www.ashram.org/.

Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii

c/o SRV San Francisco, 465 Brussels St., San Francisco, CA 94134

The Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii are an independent West Coast parallel to the SRV Association of America originally established by the American poet, philosopher, spiritual practitioner, and teacher Lex Hixon (1941–1995). The Independent SRV Associations were founded in 1993 by Bob Kindler (b. 1950), a musician and a student of the Vedanta tradition as taught by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda. Kindler was initiated into Vedanta by Swami Aseshananda, a disciple of Sri Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna’s wife and spiritual partner. He later received instruction from two additional teachers of the Ramakrishna Order— Swami Nityasvarupananda and Swami Damodarananda.

Kindler, known affectionately as Babaji, created Jai Ma Music, a sacred arts ensemble to express the teachings of India through devotional music. In this endeavor he was encouraged by Hixon, a friend and fellow believer. He toured with Jai Mai Music through the 1980s and 1990s.

The teaching of the ashrama is essentially the nondualistic form of Adavaita Vedanta popularized by Vivekananda and the Vedanta societies. Babaji’s training in yoga, Vedanta, and music informed the teaching at the SRV ashramas, where the wisdom of India is integrated with devotional music from both East and West. Babaji visits the various centers approximately four times annually. He leads up to four retreats per year and a group pilgrimage to India every two to three years. Personal initiation into the SRV Association and individual guidance in spiritual life are offered to those who accept the universal teachings of Sanatana Dharma in the tradition of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Advaita Vedanta Journal.

Sources

Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii. www.srv.org.

Kindler, Bob. Swami Vivekananda Vijnanagita: The Wisdom Song of Vivekananda. Portland, OR: Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda, n.d.

———. An Extensive Anthology of Sri Ramakrishna’s Stories. Portland, OR: Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda, n.d.

———. The Avadhut and His Twenty-Four Teachers in Nature. Portland, OR: Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda, n.d.

———. The Ten Divine Articles of Sri Durga: Insights and Meditations. Portland, OR: Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda, n.d.

Sarva Dharma Sambhava Kendra

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Sarva Dharma Sambhava Kendra was founded in the 1970s in India by Nemi Chand Gandhi (b. 1949), usually known by his religious name, Chandra Swami Maharaj. His family moved from his birthplace in Rajasthan to Hyderbad, where the young Chandra was involved in two popular social movements: one to save the Hindi language and the other to save the cows, which led to the assassination of a prominent political figure, Gulzarilal Nanda. Shortly afterward he began a spiritual search that took him to Kathmandu, where he met and studied with a tantric master. During this time he absorbed the worship of the Indian goddess Durga into his inherited Jain faith. After three years, in 1972, he returned as Chandra Swami. He is purported to be fluent in at least seven languages.

Soon after his return from Kathmandu, Chandra organized a yagna (an offering of praise, offering, or sacrifice) in Madhuban. The goddess Durga is one of the forms of the consort of Siva. Durga is pictured as the “delighter in blood” and is frequently worshiped with a yagna fire ceremony in which animals are sacrificed. (Before legal action by the British, the yagna often included a human sacrifice.) Since that first yagna Chandra has annually organized Durga Puja (worship) at various locations around India. Many of these are attended by famous people and political figures.

In the 1980s Chandra expanded his activities to a number of locations around the world, including Fiji, Canada, and the United States, where headquarters were established in Los Angeles, California.

Membership

Not reported.

Remarks

Chandra Swami Maharaj has become famous as the confidant and guru to the rich and powerful. In the United States he has had connections with tennis star John McEnroe, the actress Elizabeth Taylor, the actor George Hamilton, and U.S. House of Representatives majority leader James Wright. He is a frequent visitor to the multimillionaire Arab arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (one of the participants in the Iran-Contra arms deal in 1986–1987), Prince Rainier of Monaco, and numerous political leaders in India. In 2004 Chandra Swami Maharaj was acquitted on charges of conspiracy in a St. Kitts forgery case. He has also been linked to political scandals and exercised considerable influence on former prime minister of India P. V. Narasimha Rao during his administration.

Sources

Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). www.tribuneindia.com/

Sarvamangala Mission

c/o Srividya Center, 366 Grapevine Dr., Diamond Bar, CA 91765

The Sarvamangala Mission, established in California in the 1980s, is an outgrowth of the Hindu shakti (sacred force, power, or energy) tradition of Srividya. The mission is under the spiritual direction of Sri Rajagopala Anandanatha, a tantric saint and mystic. His followers claim that he was born by divine dispensation, was specially baptized by God, and attained spiritual perfection at the age of 38 following a period of testing and temptations and an interval of four years spent in prayer without food, drink, or sleep. According to his disciples, once he ascended to the higher levels of consciousness, he was commissioned by God to cure the sick and lead people to God.

Sri Rajagopala Anandanatha is a devotee of the Divine Mother and calls upon people to follow a path of realization through effort, self-surrender, and worship of the Divine Mother. He teaches that it is possible, no matter how many lifetimes a person has lived, to reach self-realization in this life. Vegetarian food is considered helpful in achieving mental concentration.

Membership

As of 1995 more than 50 families were contributing to the work of the mission.

Periodicals

Shakti.

Sources

India Currents. www.indiacurrents.com/news/

Satsang with Robert

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Robert Adams (b. 1928) is a disciple of the Indian sage and guru Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950). At the age of 14, while preparing for a math test, Adams claims to have had a profound mystical experience, a realization that the world was not real; there was only the self, the immutable, all-penetrating, all-prevailing source of existence. The visible world was merely a set of images superimposed by the unchangeable self on reality. Some time after this life-changing event, he discovered Ramana Maharshi’s book Who Am I? Upon seeing a picture of Maharshi, he recognized him as a little man he had seen standing at the end of his bed during his childhood years.

He soon became a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and became a monk at the monastery of the Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinatas, California. Yogananda advised him to go to Ramanashram, near Tiruvannamalai, India, and Adams remained with Ramana during the last three years of the guru’s life.

For 17 years after Ramana’s death, Adams traveled, met with other gurus, and discussed his enlightenment. Since 1967 he has traveled and taught, never staying in one place for very long. In the mid-1980s Adams had a vision of many great teachers coming together and merging like a mountain. He understood the vision as a sign to cease his traveling and take a group of students. He settled in the Los Angeles, California, where he has been teaching on a freelance basis.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Adams, Robert. There Is No Suffering, There Is No Death: Satsang with Robert. Canoga Park, CA: Author, 1991.

———. Silence of the Heart: Satsang with Robert Adams. Atlanta, GA: Acropolis Books, 1999.

Satsang with Stuart

Current address could not be obtained for this edition.

Stuart Schwartz was a student of Robert Adams (1928–1997) in the 1990s. Adams in turn was a direct student of Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) and perpetuated Ramana’s teachings of Advaita Vedanta and his methods of sitting in silence and engaging with students based on the questions they posed to him.

In the years following Adams’s death, Schwartz began his teaching career following the same model. Those drawn to Schwartz discover that being in his presence draws their attention inward and that their thoughts and mental activities are replaced by what is labeled the no-thing, which lies at the center of our being. To cease striving and abide in the Presence is the surest way to discover truth.

Schwartz maintains contact with students through his Internet Web page, where he publishes transcripts of his dialogue sessions.

Membership

Not reported. Most of Schwartz’s dialogue sessions are offered from his hometown in Boynton, Florida, but he regularly visits several sites on the East (Philadelphia, New York City, Boston) and West (California and Arizona) Coasts.

Sources

Satsang with Stuart. www.satsangwithstuart.com/.

Ramana Maharshi. Talks with Ramana Maharshi: On Realizing Abiding Peace and Happiness. Carlsbad, CA: Inner Directions, 2000.

Self-Realization Fellowship

3880 San Rafael Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065-3298

The Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) traces its beginning to 1861 and the work of Mahavatar Babaji, who revived and taught kriya yoga, a system of meditation that purports to induce a deep state of tranquility and communion with God. He chose Swami Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) to bring the teachings to the West. Born in India, Yogananda joined the strict Swami Order after his graduation from college and became the disciple of Sri Yukteswarji. In 1916 he discovered the techniques of Yogoda, a system of life-energy control for physical and spiritual development, which, combined with traditional yoga, became the central concern of his teachings.

Yogananda was trained by Swami Sri Yukteswar (1855–1936), who declared Yogananda his successor and left him his ashram properties. Yogananda founded the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in 1917. In 1920 Swami Yogananda came to the United States to attend the Pilgrim tercentenary anniversary of the International Congress of Religious Liberals. Impressed by what he found in America, he decided to stay (one of the last Indians to come into America before the change in immigration laws stopped Asian migration to America). With the Americans who flocked around him he formed a small center of the Yogoda Satsang in Boston, Massachusetts. From that center he traveled throughout the eastern United States.

In 1924 he made his first transcontinental lecture tour of the United States, which culminated in the founding of a headquarters for his work on Mt. Washington in Los Angeles, California, in 1925. In the late 1920s he toured the principal cities of the United States as a lecturer and concentrated on compiling two volumes of inspirational writings: Whispers of Eternity (1929) and Songs of the Soul (1925). A magazine, East-West (now Self-Realization), and a course of printed lessons aided the rapid spread of the movement, but nothing was as effective as the personality of Yogananda himself. According to the reports of his followers, he was no less charismatic in death than in life. His demise was heralded by his disciples as an extraordinary event because of “the absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda … even twenty days after his death,” according to a notarized testimony from the Forest Lawn Mortuary in Glendale, California.

The spread of the work in America led, in 1935, to the incorporation of the Self-Realization Fellowship as an international society. In addition to the headquarters in Los Angeles, other California centers were opened in Encinatas, San Diego, Hollywood, Long Beach, and Pacific Palisades; smaller groups were organized throughout the United States. The emphasis of the Self-Realization Fellowship is teaching the way to ananda (bliss), or self-realization or God realization. The way to bliss is through “definite scientific techniques for attaining personal experience of God.” The technique is kriya yoga, a system of awakening and energizing the chakras or psychic centers believed to be located along the spinal column. The basic practice is regular deep meditation, which leads to a focusing of spiritual cosmic energies and a consequent direct perception of the divine. Yogananda’s disciples believe that by the practice of kriya yoga, blood is decarbonized and recharged with oxygen, the atoms of which are transmuted into “life current” to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers.

The essential unity of Eastern and Western religious traditions is also stressed by SRF; lecture services include interpretations of parallel scriptural passages from the New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita. Readings are also given from Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, considered a modern spiritual classic; it has remained in print since its publication in 1946 and is widely used as a textbook and reference work in colleges and universities around the world. Worship centers on the inner communion (meditation) practices of Yogananda. Followers can study his teachings in depth through the many books of his lectures and writings that have been published as well as through a series of lessons designed for home study.

Yogananda was succeeded by Swami Rajarsi Janakananda (James J. Lynn). Lynn died in 1955 and was succeeded by Sri Daya Mata, the present head of the fellowship.

Membership

In 1998 the fellowship reported nine temples and ashram centers: six in California and one each in Phoenix, Arizona; Front Royal, Virginia; and Nuremberg, Germany. There are also an additional 172 centers and meditation groups in the United States and 220 in 47 other countries. The Yogoda Satsang Society of India had 100 centers and operated a variety of charitable facilities.

Educational Facilities

There are four Yogoda Satsanga Society colleges in India: one each in Suraikhet and Palpara and two in Ranchi.

Periodicals

Self-Realization.

Sources

Self-Realization Fellowship. www.yogananda-srf.org.

Mata, Sri Daya. Only Love. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1976.

New Pilgrims of the Spirit. Boston: Beacon Press, 1921.

Self-Realization Fellowship Highlights. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1980.

Self Realization Fellowship Manuel of Services. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1965.

Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971.

———. Descriptive Outlines of Yogoda. Los Angeles: Yogoda Satsang Society, 1928.

———. The Yoga of Jesus: Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, n.d.

Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism

4748 Western Ave., Washington, DC 20816

Several movements have grown out of the work of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda’s disciples. The Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism is an independent church founded by Swami Premananda, who was called from India by Yogananda in 1928. It now operates independently of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Besides the tradition of kriya yoga (self-realization) as taught by Premananda, the church highlights the life and work of Gandhi; the church operates the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation as an affiliate educational and cultural center.

Swami Premananda established the Swami Order of Absolute Monism for those who wish to follow the ideals of advaita vedanta. The current leader of the church and the Gandhi Memorial Center is Srimata Kamala. She was ordained a minister in the Swami Order in 1973 and a swami in 1978.

Membership

There is no formal membership. In 1995 there was one center in Washington, D.C., two other centers in the United States, and a mission in Midnapur, West Bengal. There are four ministers.

Educational Facilities

The Gandhi Memorial Center administers a correspondence course on Mahatma Gandhi that is accorded independent-study credit at some American colleges. The course leads to a certificate from the Gujarat Vidyapith, the university founded by Gandhi in 1920. The Church of the Children, the original chapel, contains a small collection of books that began the Library of India; it contains more than 500 volumes of esoteric wisdom from the world’s great religious traditions and a complete collection of Swami’s own works.

Periodicals

The Mystic Cross. • The Gandhi Message Self-Revelation.

Sources

Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism. www.self-revelationchurch.org.

Premananda, Swami. Light on Kriya Yoga. Washington, DC: Swami Premananda Foundation, 1969.

———. The Path of the Eternal Law. Washington, DC: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1942.

———. Prayers of Self-Realization. Washington, DC: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1943.

———. Prayers of Soul. Washington, DC: Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, 1996.

Shanti Mandir

51 Mulktananda Marg, Walden, NY 12586

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: c/o Greenfield School, A/Z Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029, India

Before Swami Muktananda died in 1982 he picked a brother-and-sister team, Swami Nityananda and Swami Chidvilasananda, to succeed him. For three years they coadministered the large global organization, Siddha Yoga Dham, that Muktananda had built. The apparent smoothness of the transition was soon disrupted by controversy and accusations, and in 1985 Swami Nityananda withdrew from Siddha Yoga Dham, renounced his vows as a sannyasin, and entered private life as a teacher of meditation in California. In July 1987 he founded Shanti Mandir (Temple of Peace) and began holding meditation retreats and other programs in America, Europe, Australia, and India.

On December 26, 1989, with a dip in the near-freezing water of the Ganges River at Haridwar, India, Nityananda reaffirmed his sannyas vow and his commitment to Muktananda and to God’s work. A lengthy period of conflict and harassment followed as members of Siddha Yoga Dham challenged his authority.

In May 1995 the Mahamandaleshwars, a network of spiritual leaders in Haridwar who act as advisors to the governing bodies of their respective regions, inducted Nityananda into their association in a ceremony at Suratgiri Bangla in Haridwar. Swami Nityananda, at the age of 32, became history’s youngest Mahamandaleshwar.

Swami Nityananda continues to spread the teachings of Swami Muktananda, offering introductory meditation lessons while emphasizing chanting as a powerful meditation practice and encouraging his followers to see all life as a manifestation of God’s energy.

Membership

Not reported. There are centers in India, Germany, Spain, United States, Mexico, and Australia.

Periodicals

Eternally Blissful.

Sources

Shanti Mandir. www.shantimandir.com.

“Nityananda, One of Swami Muktananda’s Successors, ‘Retakes’Sannyasin Vows.” Hinduism Today 12, 4 (April 1990). Available from www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1990/04/1990-04-09.shtml.

Shanti Temple

43 S Main St., Spring Valley, NY 10977

The Shanti Temple is a Hindu center founded in the 1980s by Swami Shantanand Saraswati. Swami Shantanand teaches a simple way of regulation of the self, selfless service, and awareness. Awareness is attained through a seven-stage path of self-realization. The stages begin with shubhechchha (good desire), suvicharana (discrimination between the unreal and real), and tanumansa (steadfastness of mind). In the third stage the practice of concentration inaugurates the process of the development of detachment. In the fourth stage, sattwapatti (self-realization), one realizes the self as the light of pure awareness, the nonjudgmental observer of the mind. The fifth stage, asansakti (detachment), is a new level of detachment above ego, right and wrong, pride, and humility. The sixth stage, padarthabjavni, brings the ego into attunement with spirit and leads to the final stage, turyaga, in which the ego is completely immersed in spirit.

The Shanti Temple operates out of a single center in Spring Valley, New York. Swami Shantanand is the author of several books.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Shantanand Saraswati, Swami. The Challenge of Wisdom. Spring Valley, NY: Shanti Temple, 1987.

Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat

943 Central Ave., Ocean City, NJ 08226

The Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat was founded in 1974 by Shanti Desai. Yogi Desai became a disciple of Swami Kripalvanandji at a young age and was initiated at age 15. He came to the United States to pursue graduate studies in chemistry at Drexel University, earning his master’s degree in 1964. In 1972 he left his job as a chemist to devote his life to teaching yoga. He returned to India and received shaktipat (conferring of spiritual power on a student by a guru) initiation from his guru. On his return to the United States, he founded the Shanti Yoga Institute of New Jersey. In 1974 he opened the Yoga Retreat in Ocean City, New Jersey, and in 1981 he opened Prasad, a holistic health food store and restaurant. Shanti has published four books, an instructional yoga video, and a two-volume audio cassette, Healing Mantra Chants. Shanti designed his instruction of yoga for a Western audience and has trained several thousand students and a number of yoga teachers.

Membership

There was one center in New Jersey.

Remarks

Shanti Desai is the brother of Amrit Desai, founder of the Kirpalu Yoga Fellowship.

Sources

Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat www.yogishantidesai.com

Desai, Yogi Shanti. The Complete Practice Manual of Yoga. Ocean City, NJ: Shanti Yogi Institute, 1976.

———. Hatha Yoga Practice Manual. Ocean City, NJ: Shanti Yogi Institute, 1977. 72pp.

———. Meditation Practice Manual. Ocean City, NJ: Shanti Yogi Institute, 1981. 152 pp.

———. Personal to Global Transformation. Ocean City, NJ: Shanti Yogi Institute. 265 pp.

———. Yoga, Holistic Practice Manual. Ocean City, NJ: Shanti Yogi Institute, 1976. 260 pp.

Shiva-Shakti Kashmir Shavite Ashram

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Shiva-Shakti Kashmir Shavite Ashram is a small Hindu group that emerged around the leadership of Swami Savitripriya. Beginning in 1968, Swami Savitripriya (b. 1930) had a series of mystical experiences that led her in the mid-1970s to proclaim herself a siddha (perfected master) guru of the highest level. She began to teach what she calls maha siddha yoga and to bring together a closely knit group of disciples who worked together as monks and nuns. During the 1980s they founded an ashram in Groveland, California.

The movement ran into problems in 1990 when the Siddha Yoga Dham challenged Swami Savitripriya’s use of the term maha siddha yoga; a Siddha Yoga Dham claimed ownership of the term siddha yoga. The conflict was part of a larger conflict within Hindu circles over the trademarking of various terms common to Hinduism that had been pioneered in America by various organizations. At last report the issue remains unresolved.

Swami Savitripriya lives in her small private ashram and devotes her time to translating Hindu scriptures and original books.

Membership

Not reported.

Educational Facilities

Holy Mountain University, Groveland, California.

Sources

Shiva-Shakti Kashmir Shavite Ashram. sanskritdocuments.org/sites/savitripriya/home.htm.

Palani, Sivasiva. “The Trademark Wars.” Hinduism Today (November 1990): 1, 23. Available from www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1990/11/1990-11-02.shtml.

Savitripriya, Swami. From Darkness to Light: My Autobiography. Sunnyvale, CA: New Life Books, n.d.

———. Mysteries of the Cosmos Unveiled: Truths about the Universe, God and Man. New Word Hinduism.

———. Practice the Yoga Dharma at Home Workbook. New World Hinduism.

———. Psychology of Mystical Awakening. Sunnyvale, CA: New Life Books, 1991.

Shri Krishna Pranami Association of U.S.A. and Canada

c/o Shree Krishna Pranami Mandir of Houston, 14303 FM 762, Richmond, TX 77469

The Shri Krishna Pranami Association of U.S.A. and Canada (formerly the Shri Krishna Association of the U.S.A.) is the North American representative of the Pranami religion, a form of Hinduism that originated in India in the sixteenth century during the midst of a Hindu-Muslim conflict. It was founded by Shri Devchandraji (1581–1655), a seeker who as a young man resided for a time at Jamnagar, where he was given a vision of Krishna during which the deity gave him the “Highest Knowledge” and initiated him with the Tartam Mantra. Shri Devchandraji was given the task of spreading this unique knowledge. He subsequently found an assistant in the person of Shri Prannathji (1618–1694), a government official in the state of Jamnagar who became a disciple of Shri Devchandraji’s during the reign of Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), a Muslim. In response to an Islamic evangelistic campaign launched by Aurangzeb that was disrupting the Hindu community, Prannathji resigned his post and dedicated his life to saving Hinduism. He preached a monotheistic form of faith that rejected the many Hindu gods and goddesses in favor of Krishna, whom he believed to be the only god. Based upon this monotheism, he called for rapprochement between Hindus and Muslims.

The lineage of Shri Prannathji was continued into the twentieth century when it came to be held by Guruji Shri Mangaldasji (1896–1985). He spread the work to eastern India and founded the Guruji Pranami Mission Trust. He also oversaw the beginnings of the work in the West. Though he never came to the United States, his successor and the present head of the Trust, Guruji Shri Mohan Priyacharyaji, has on several occasions.

The Pranamis have a holy book, Tartam Sagar, composed of some 18,000 verses written by Prannathji. It draws on concepts from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Qur’an, and other scriptures. The movement took hold in Jamnagar and eventually spread across India into Nepal.

The Pranami religion was initially brought to the United States in the 1970s by immigrants. Followers can now be found in most major urban areas with a significant Indian-American population, including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta. There are also followers in Canada. The current president of the Shri Krishna Pranami Association of U.S.A. and Canada, Ved P. Bhagat, resides in Washington, D.C.

Membership

Not reported. The movement claims some four million followers and 400 temples in India and Nepal.

Sources

Guruji Pranami Mission Trust. www.pranami.org/pranami_mission.shtml.

Dongre, Archana. “Int’l Conference of Pranami Religion Held.” India-West, July 3, 1992.

Priyacharya, M. An Introduction to Krishna Pranami Religion. Ed. D. Clinch. Detroit, MI: Shri Krishna Pranami Association, 1992.

Sharma, S. Mahamati Prannath: The Saviour. New Delhi, India: Shri Prannath Mission, 1984.

Shri Ram Chandra Mission

Rte. 1, Box 122-5, 5611 GA Hwy. 109, Molena, GA 30258

Alternate Address

International Headquarters: c/o Gayathri, 19 North St., Sri Ram Nagar, Madras, 600 018, India.

The Shri Ram Chandra Mission in India was established in 1945 by Sri Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur; he is popularly known as “Babuji.” The mission was founded in memory of Babuji’s master, Samarth Guru Mahatma Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh, who is affectionately known as “Lalaji.” Its objectives are to educate and propagate among the masses the art and science of yoga, formulated to meet present-day conditions and needs; to promote the feelings of mutual love and universal brotherhood, irrespective of caste, creed, or color; and to conduct research in the field of yoga and establish research institutes for that purpose.

The son of a scholar, Ram Chandra was born to a Kayastha family on April 30, 1899, in Shahjahanpur. He was not an outstanding student but by his teen years had developed an interest in philosophy, literature, and geography. In his secular life, he joined the court and retired in 1954 after 30 years of service. He eventually found his way to Sri Ram Chandraji of Fategarh, who taught a forgotten method of pranahuti (divine transmission) used by yogis in ancient times. Ram Chandra commenced his spiritual training under the guidance of Sri Ram Chandraji and gave up the discipline of pranayama (lengthening of the prana or breath), which he had been practicing for the previous seven years.

When his guru died in 1931, Ram Chandra felt that his spiritual instruction had been completed. He had a sense of total convergence with his guru’s spirit. In 1932 he received a further transmission from his guru but was not able to bear it fully, and he was overfilled with divine energy. He gave the guru credit in 1944, when he had the vision of a light like that which Moses saw and also Sri Krishna’s viratsvarupa. The Sri Ram Chandra Mission was founded to carry out the mission of his master.

Sri Ram Chandraji Maharaj died on April 19, 1983. He was succeeded by his disciple, Sri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari of Chennai, the current president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Also known as “Chariji,” Sri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari was born in 1927 in a village called Vayalur near Madras. He graduated from Benaras Hindu University with a B.S. degree and found employment with Indian Plastics Limited in chemical engineering. He rose to an executive position with the T. T. Krishnamachari group of companies in Bombay and stayed with this firm until his retirement in 1985. In the meantime, his conscious spiritual aspirations had been awakened at the age of 18 by a lecture on the Bhagavad Gita. He discovered Sri Ram Chandraji Maharaj in 1964, and both he and his father accepted him as their new guru after hearing about this system of raja yoga. In recent years Chariji has traveled extensively around the world, conducting public seminars in which he gives instruction on the sahaj marg system of meditation.

The way of sahaj marg is embodied in the 10 maxims, which lay out a daily schedule for the disciples. They rise before dawn to offer puja (worship) that begins with a prayer for spiritual elevation. Each day the disciples’goal is complete oneness with God. They strive to live a truthful, plain, and simple life and treat all people as their brothers and sisters. They eschew revenge and live out of gratitude, seeking to inspire feelings of love and piety in others. The day ends in a feeling of the presence of God and the asking for forgiveness for any wrongs committed.

Membership

The mission has several hundred centers in India and numerous countries around the world. The training is imparted by the president of the mission and more than 1,000 trainers (called preceptors) throughout the world.

Periodicals

Sahag Marg Magazine, SRCM Danmark, Vrads Sande, Vej4, 8654 Bryrup, Denmark.

Sources

Shri Ram Chandra Mission. www.srcm.org.

Chandra, Ram. Autobiography of Ram Chandra. 3 vols. Shahjahanpur, India: Shri Ram Chandra Mission, 1974, 1986, 1997.

———. Complete Works of Ram Chandra. Vol 1. Pacific Grove, CA: North American Publishing Committee, 1989.

———. Letters of the Master, Volumes I & II. Shahjahanpur, India: Shri Ram Chandra Mission, 1992. Vol. 1, 363 pp.; Vol. 2, 338 pp.

———. Letters of the Master, Volume III. Shahjahanpur, India: Shri Ram Chandra Mission, 1996. 332 pp.

———. Messages Universal, Volume I. Shahjahanpur, India: Shri Ram Chandra Mission, 1986. 122 pp.

Shri Shivabalayogi International Maharaj Trust

PO Box 293, Langley, WA 98260

Alternate Addresses

Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, J. P. Nagar, Bangalore 560 078, India. • 2 Olleff Rd., Langford Town, Bangalore 560 025.

The Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trusts dates back to 1961, the year in which Bala Yogi completed a spiritual quest that led to his self-realization. Bala Yogi was born in 1935 to a poverty-stricken family in Adivarapupeta, a village in Andhra Pradesh, India. As a child he went to work as a weaver of sarees. His commercial endeavors were derailed when, at the age of 14, he had an intense experience of jyoti, the divine light, and he heard the sound of om, the basic generative sound of the universe. A person identified as Jangam Shiva, a Hindu deity, appeared before him, and he went into samadhi, a mystical state of consciousness.

The experience changed the course of Bala Yogi’s life. He began a period of tapas, intensive meditation and austerity, that lasted for 12 years. On August 7, 1961, he emerged as a yogi. He began a mission that consisted of initiating students into the practice of meditation with the goal of darshan (vision of the realized person). He also gave consecrated vibhuti (ash) for healing of body and mind and trained disciples to achieve bhava samadhi (divine trance).

Shivabalayogi does not teach in words but through silence and experience. He gives dhyana diksha (initiation into meditation) to all who seek earnestly. His only verbal instruction is to meditate daily. Through our own meditation, we come to know the truth of who we are and our purpose in life. In the yogi’s subtle body presence devotees often gather to sit in meditation, which is followed by bhajans, songs in praise of God; during this singing devotees may experience varying degrees of divine ecstasy.

Numerous ashrams were dedicated to Shavabalayogi in towns throughout India: Adivarapupeta, the location of the Mother Ashram; Bangalore, the site of the largest ashram; Dehradun, Sambhar Lake; Hyderabad; and Agra. In the late 1980s he established his first Western center in London and moved to the United States, establishing trusts in Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Shri Shivabalayogi International Maharaj Trust. www.shiva.org.

Bala Yogi Maharaj, Shri Shiva. Life and Spiritual Ministration. Bangalore, India: Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, n.d. 128 pp.

———. Spiritual Essence and Luminescence. Bangalore, India: Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, n.d. 18 pp.

Palotas, Tom. Divine Play: The Silent Teaching of Shiva Bala Yogi. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus Press, n.d. 290 pp.

“Shiva’s Own Bala Yoga.” Hinduism Today. 12, 8 (August 1990): 1, 25. Available from www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1990/08/1990-08-01.shtml.

Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram

45 Texas Rd., Matawan, NJ 07747

Alternate Address

International headquarters: Sabarmati, Motera, Ahmedabad-380005, Gujrat, India • Canadian headquarters: 2647 Crystalburn Ave. Mississauga, ON, Canada L5B 2N7.

The Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram is the vehicle for the ministry of the Indian spiritual teacher Pujya Sant Sri Asaramji Bapu (b. 1942). He was born in what is now Pakistan; his family moved to Gujarat, India, following the partition of India. He was raised in a devout Hindu home. As a young man he made a pilgrimage to Vrindavan, the holy city, where he met Swami Sri Lilashahaji Maharaj. Upon his return home, he started a period of intensive spiritual practice at a site near the river Narmada at Moti Koral. His practice culminated in his meeting with SadGurudev Lilashahji Maharaj in Mumbai. He emerged from the experience as Swami Sri Asaramji Maharaj. He was instructed to continue to serve humanity by remaining a householder. Having attained a state of self-realization, he spent the next seven years in seclusion.

He chose to reside at a site in Motera, a village on the banks of Sabarmati River where some of his devotees constructed a small room for him. That room was the beginning of what became the first site of Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram. His followers came to see him as the embodiment of an ancient Vedantic ideal of perfection, one who, after attaining liberation for himself, strives for the liberation of others. He is thus known as a rishi.

His message emphasizes traditional Hindu themes of Vedanta, yoga, divine love, bhakti (devotion), and mukti (salvation). He bestows “divine love” through shaktipat (the act of a guru or spiritual teacher conferring a form of spiritual “power” or awakening on a disciple/student), by which he releases kundalini (an unconscious, instinctive, or erotic force or energy) in his disciples. He has developed “Maun Mandirs,” special temples for spiritual practices (primarily meditation) where adherents may stay in complete seclusion for seven days. These small structures (many in the shape of pyramids), available at all his ashrams, are reserved for those who wish to make rapid progress in the spiritual life.

After the formal establishment of the ashram in 1971, Pujya Bapuji began to travel and speak, first around India and then internationally. His popularity in the United States dates from his appearance in 1993 at the World’s Parliament of Religions. Headquarters were established in New Jersey, and additional centers opened in Chicago, Boston, and California. There is one center in Canada.

An ashram for women was also established at Ahmedabad; there the residents devote their time to spiritual practices and performing services for the ashram. They are led by the honorable mother Laxmidevi. The ashram residents also mix and distribute various ayurvedic medicinal products. Their activity is part of a larger effort to assist people around India with ayurvedic medicine.

Membership

In 2000 there were 111 ashrams in India and 450 meditation centers around the world.

Periodicals

Rishi Prasad.

Sources

Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram. www.ashram.org/njashram.

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers

673 8th Ave., Val Morin, QC, Canada J0T 2R0

Alternate Address

International affiliate: (unofficial) Divine Life Society, P.O. Shivanandanagar, Dist. Tehri-Garwal, Uttar Pradesh, India.

The first of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers was founded in North America in 1959 by Swami Vishnu Devananda (b. 1927), the North American representative of the late Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887–1963), who was sent to the West in 1957.

Swami Sivananda Saraswati (born Kuppuswami Iyer) was one of several renowned twentieth-century Hindus who became revered as saints and holy men. Reared by devout parents who encouraged his education, he began to study medicine but interrupted his studies after the death of his father. He moved to Malaysia to work as a hospital administrator, but after 10 years, in 1923, he returned to India to pursue a spiritual quest. He was initiated as a sannyasin, a follower of a life of renunciation, and settled at Swargashram, near Rishikish, where many sannyasins lived. He began to write, teach, and make pilgrimages around India. He advocated a life of bhakti yoga (devotion) and karma yoga (service).

Unwilling to forget the life of service upon which he had embarked as a youth, he moved to Rishikish and established an ashram. As part of the ashram facility, he opened a medical dispensary to serve the local community. By 1936 the work had grown considerably. He formed the Divine Life Trust and the Divine Life Society, an open-membership auxiliary. The dispensary grew into a major medical facility, and the ashram became a major center for the propagation of yoga. It soon attracted many of the best teachers from various parts of India.

Sivananda’s teaching is summarized in the motto “Serve, love, give, meditate, purify, realize.” He led his students upon a sadhana (path to enlightenment) that included bhakti (practicing love) and ahimsa (constant striving to do no harm and cause no pain). He developed a synthesis of yoga that he called integral yoga; it included the four traditional forms of bhakti, jnana, karma, and raja, to which he added a fifth, japa (repetition of a mantra).

Sivananda never visited North America, but he sent several of his students. As early as 1959, Swami Chidananda, his successor as leader of the ashram in India, visited the United States. Even before Sivananda’s death, his student began to establish work outside of India. Sivananda sent Swami Vishnu Devananda (1927–1993) to work in Canada and the United States. Although other students of Sivananda’s have come to the United States, Vishnu Devananda is the teacher recognized by the Divine Life Society in India.

Swami Vishnu Devananda was originally attracted to Swami Sivananda by reading his books and formally became his disciple in 1947. In 1949, at the Sivanandashram in Rishikish, Sivananda initiated him into the ancient sannyasin order of the renounced life, and Vishnu Devananda, through his studies and practice of the rigorous spiritual disciplines, became one of Sivananda’s most accomplished pupils. He came to the West in 1957 at Sivananda’s direction. He founded several centers in the United States before settling permanently in Canada in 1958. He established his North American headquarters in Montreal.

Swami Vishnu Devananda follows the teachings of Sivananda. He emphasizes the benefits of a rigorous spiritual discipline and has focused upon raja and hatha yoga. He also purveyed the complete yoga doctrines of his teacher. The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams are headed by Vishnu Devananda, and the various centers are headed by teachers trained by him. In 1962 he founded the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec; in 1967 he established the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas. Both provide intensive yoga training in a vacationlike setting. He has established ashrams (sanctuaries for the systematic practice of yoga for residents) in Val Morin, Quebec; Woodburne, New York; Grass Valley, California; and Trivandrum, India. Other centers are located in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

The True World Order, Vishnu Devananda’s continuing world peace and brotherhood mission, was founded in 1969. To demonstrate his concern for peace and the importance of nonviolence, he has flown around the world dropping leaflets and organizing peace demonstrations at various trouble spots. He conducted one famous peace mission to Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the late actor Peter Sellers. He also has showered the Suez Canal and the Berlin Wall with leaflets and flowers.

Membership

There are four Ashrams and six centers located throughout North America. In addition, several thousand followers have been trained as yoga teachers and are now active in a wide variety of locations apart from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers.

Periodicals

Yoga Life. Available from Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, 243 W 24th St., New York, NY 10011.

Remarks

Among the disciples of Sivananda was Swami Venkatesananda, who did spiritual work in Australia and South Africa. During the 1980s the Chiltern Yoga Foundation was established in San Francisco, California, for the sole purpose of publishing and distributing Swami Venkatesananda’s books in the United States and Canada.

Sources

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. www.sivananda.org.

Behera, Sarat Chandra. The Holy Stream: The Inspiring Life of Swami Chidananda. Sivanandanagar, India: Divine Life Society, 1981.

Devananda, Swami Vishnu. The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. New York: Julian Press, 1960.

———. The Hatha Yoga Pradhipika. N.p., n.d.

———. Meditation and Mantras. New York: OM Lotus Publishing Company, 1978.

———. The Sivananda Upanishad. New York: OM Lotus Publishing Company, 1987.

Krishna, Copala. The Yogi: Portraits of Swami Vishnu-Devananda. St. Paul, MN: Yes International Publishers, 1995. 149 pp.

Sivananda, Swami. Sadhana. Sivanandanagar, India: Divine Life Society, 1967.

The Sivananda Yoga Center. The Sivananda Companion to Yoga. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.

Tawker, K. A. Sivananda, One World Teacher. Rishikish, India: Yoga-Vedanta Forest University, 1957.

Venkatesananda, Swami. Gurudev Sivananda. Durban, South Africa: Divine Life Society of South Africa, 1961.

SMVA Trust

14516 Rumfeldt, Austin, TX 78725

The SMVA Trust is the vehicle of the work and teaching of Sri Karunamayi (b. 1958), a female spiritual teacher from India who is generally known simply as Amma. Amma’s spiritual and humanitarian inclinations manifested in her teen years, and at one point she locked herself in the family meditation room for a month. She emerged with a new demeanor, which was described as intensely reflecting an impersonal, universal love. Soon afterward, she left home to spend a period in solitary meditation in the forest. She was 21 when she left home for good. She remained alone for the next 10 years, and through her spiritual practices during this time attained insights about which of the Vedic teachings and practices would be of greatest benefit to people in the modern world. She then returned to society to begin life as a teacher.

Amma initially settled in Bangalore, India, where an early disciple provided her a room in which to live and teach. Along with sharing her spiritual insights, she conducted ceremonies aimed at promoting world peace and universal well-being and worked toward the goal of supplying medical care for people living in the villages of the region. Out of this latter effort came the Sri Karunamayi Free Hospital.

Amma initially came to the United States in 1995 after accepting an invitation to present some public programs. She has subsequently returned annually for a national tour that has included lectures, classes, retreats, and homa (fire) ceremonies. Simultaneously, she began to develop a following in Europe.

Amma has emphasized the need for humans to cultivate inner beauty and ultimately reach spiritual liberation in order to reach a state in which they can provide selfless service to all. According to Amma, the purpose of human life is found in the development of a range of virtues, such as compassion, truthfulness, dispassionate wisdom, contentment, and selfless love. Manifesting such virtues leads to a peaceful state of mind that allows the deep meditation conducive to direct contact with the Atman, or divine inner self. Merging with the Atman is the destiny of all.

The international headquarters of the movement remains at the ashram in Bangalore. Humanitarian efforts have led to the development of the hospital and a Free School serving the surrounding region.

Membership

Not reported. In 2008 there were 15 satsang groups that met regularly at various locations across the United States.

Sources

SMVA Trust. www.karunamayi.org/.

Karunamayi: A Biography. Bangalore, India: SMVA Trust, 2005.

Karunamayi, Sri. Blessed Souls: The Teachings of Sri Karunamayi. 2 vols. Bangalore: SMVA Triest, 1998, 2000.

———. Sri Gayatri: The Inner Secrets Revealed. I & II. Bangalore: SMVA Trust, 2005.

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT)

1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060

The Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT), founded in the mid-1970s, is consecrated to the teaching of nonduality, especially as revealed by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the south Indian sage who flourished (1879–1950) at the holy mountain called Arunachala. SAT is under the spiritual guidance of Nome, with a background influence of advaita Vedanta, Russell Smith, and nondual Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism.

The teaching of nonduality proclaims that the true nature of the self, one’s own being or consciousness, is that of the absolute (i.e., God, Brahman, or Buddha nature). It proclaims that the self, undivided being-consciousness-bliss, is infinite and eternal, the one reality that pervades and transcends all. This teaching places special emphasis on self-knowledge attained by inquiring “Who am I?” Such self-questioning, it is believed, reveals the real self and overcomes the illusion of a separate ego to reveal the homogeneous, infinite presence of reality. The result is self-realization, characterized by permanent peace and happiness.

The teaching has its roots in the Upanishads, the wisdom portion of the Vedas, and scriptures of Hinduism (also called sanatana dharma [the way of eternal truth]). This outlook was also expounded by Sri Sankaracharya, the eighth-century Indian sage, as well as in numerous scriptures and sayings of many other sages and saints of this tradition. It also has roots in nondual Buddhism, as exemplified by the Zen master of China during the T’ang Dynasty.

SAT endeavors to preserve and disseminate the wisdom of this spiritual tradition. The group maintains a center in Santa Cruz, California, where seekers can learn about the teaching, practice it, and strive to realize self-knowledge. Other activities include the distribution of every book in English by or about Sri Ramana Maharshi; the distribution of Vedanta and Zen literature; and the translation and publication of books such as the Ribbu Gita (an ancient treatise on nondual truth), Sri Sankara’s works, and teachings given by Nome and Russell Smith. SAT also conducts weekly satsangs (gatherings of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate the truth) and other holy events and retreats. It also sponsors performances of sacred music from around the world.

Membership

As of 2002, the SAT reported members scattered throughout the world, but most are concentrated in the area around Santa Cruz, California.

Periodicals

Reflections.

Sources

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT). www.satramana.org.

The Journey Home. Santa Cruz, CA: Avadhut, 1986.

Maharshi’s Gospel. Tiruvannamalai, India: T. N. Venkataraman, 1957.

Spiritual Instruction of Bhagavan Sri Raman Maharshi. Tiruvannamalai, India: T. N. Venkataraman, 1939.

Maharshi, Sri Ramana. The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Thiruvannamalai, India: Sri Ramanasramam, 2007. 318 pp.

Nome. The Four Requisites for Realization and Self-Inquiry. Santa Cruz, CA: Society of Abidance in Truth, 2003. 32 pp.

———. Ribhu Gita. Santa Cruz, CA: Society of Abidance in Truth, 1995.

———. Self-Knowledge. Atma Jnana Publications, 2003.

Sankara, Adi. Svatmanirupanam (The True Definition of One’s Own Self). Santa Cruz, CA: Society of Abidance in Truth, 2002.

———. A Bouquet of Nondual Texts. Santa Cruz, CA: Society of Abidance in Truth, 2006.

Source School of Tantra Yoga

PO Box 368, Kahului, HI 96733

Source School of Tantra Yoga was founded in 1978 by Charles Muir. Muir began to study yoga in 1965 and took his instructor training from Richard Hittleman. In 1974 he founded and directed the “Yoga for Health” Schools in California. In the meantime he became interested in tantra. Caroline Muir is a yoga instructor and massage instructor. The pair began working together in the early 1980s and now teach tantra as a means of physical, mental, and spiritual awakening.

The Muirs strive to facilitate their students to fully express themselves as both physical and spiritual beings and believe that sex and spirit are inextricably connected. Sexual activity thus becomes a means of profound meditation and sexuality a unifying, harmonizing, and spiritualizing force of the universe.

The school offers workshops and seminars in Hawaii, California, and Colorado, and the Muirs’teachings are spread through several tapes and one book.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Source School of Tantra Yoga. www.sourcetantra.com

Muir, Charles, and Caroline Muir. Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving. San Francisco: Mercury House, 1989.

Spiritual Realization Institute

c/o Sri Puri Dhama Vaishnava Community, PO Box 305, Lockport, NY 14095-0305

The Spiritual Realization Institute was founded by Geoffrey Giuliano (b. 1953), who has now legally changed his name to Jagannatha Dasa. As Geoffrey Giuliano he was well known for his books on popular music and various celebrities. He has written a number of books on the Beatles, including the controversial Dark Horse: The Life and Art of George Harrison and, more recently, Two of Us: John Lennon and Paul McCartney Behind the Myth. He also played the role of Ronald McDonald (the clown figure of the McDonald’s fast food chain) in personal appearances for several years. As Jagannatha Dasa, he has been a student/practitioner of the Chaitanya devotional tradition of Hinduism and the founder of an ashram in Lockport, New York, the home of the Spiritual Realization Institute.

Giuliano initially became a devotee of Krishna consciousness in 1970, though only part time. After his graduation from college (with a degree in acting) in 1978, he took a job playing the Marvelous Magical Burger King and in 1980 began a two-year stint as Ronald McDonald in Canada. As he became more serious about his Krishna attachments and his belief in vegetarianism, he quit that job.

Giuliano joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) but left in 1980, when he found that “certain improprieties of my god-brothers came to light.” That same year, while in Toronto, he met B. H. Mangal Niloy Goswami Maharaja, a Krishna-consciousness guru, and in 1982 both he and his wife took initiation and accepted their new spiritual names, Jagannatha Dasa and Vrndarani Devi. He eventually decided to follow the path of Krishna devotion. He recommitted himself to his religious faith in 1990. Three years later he and his wife established Sri Puri Dhama Vaishnava Community in Niagara County, New York. It was legally incorporated in 1996 as The Spiritual Realization Institute (SRI), which describes itself as an “international resource for those interested in the Vedic arts and sciences as well as a fully functioning educational and cultural institution.” In the 1990s he also operated as an anti-McDonald’s activist. SRI has become a member of the Food Bank of Western New York and, under the name Dasa Food For All, operates the only vegetarian food pantry in the area.

Membership

As of 1999 SRI had about 30 initiated disciples who have been given spiritual names and another 50 members from across western New York.

Sources

Michelmore, William V. “Renowned Rock Biographer Reincarnates As Hindu Leader.” www.vnn.org/usa/US9908/US30-4615.html.

Sree Rama Dasa Mission

Current address could not be obtained for this edition.

The Sree Rama Dasa Mission is the product of two extraordinary Indian spiritual teachers. The first, Brahmashree Neelakanta Gurupadar (1900–1965), was an original teacher who attained high states of consciousness without benefit of a teacher of his own. In 1920, as a young man, Gurupadar moved into a small ashram, after which he spent the next 45 years engaged in what is termed Atmarama worship, defined as a practice in which the worshipper and the worshipped attain absolute communion. He was watched by people and attained a reputation for leading a humble and disciplined life, as well as one filled with various manifestations of a variety of siddhas, or supernatural powers.

In 1962 Gurupadar formally established the Sree Rama Dasa Mission, consecrated the Rama-Sita-Anjaneya temple, and introduced regular worship. Three years later, he anointed his chosen successor, Jagadguru Swami Sathyananda Saraswathi (d. 2006). Swami Sathyananda shared many characteristics of his predecessor. Following Gurupadar’s death, he engaged in 14 years of intense devotional practice based on a rigorous regime of conducting pujas (offerings to the divine) five times each day. He was believed to have attained a mystical union with the Divine Mother, at whose command he subsequently pursued an effort aimed at the comprehensive uplift of Indian society. Like his predecessor, he was also believed to have developed a number of siddhas, most notably the ability to bilocate. Sathyananda was also an advocate of the various paths of yoga.

Swami Sathyananda began his mission in the West in 2000. That year he was given the Hindu of the Year award by the Federation of Hindu Associations in Los Angeles. The next year he organized the first Kerala Hindu Convention of North America, which met at Dallas, Texas, in April 2001. Sathyananda subsequently took the lead in holding the Second and Third National Conventions of the Kerala Hindus of North America (2003 and 2005, respectively). His worldwide travels resulted in the formation of branch centers of the Mission in Malaysia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the Caribbean Islands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The majority of affiliates are immigrants from Kerala State, India.

Membership

Not reported. As of 2008, American centers of the Sree Rama Dasa Mission were located in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Richmond, Virginia, Dallas and Houston, Texas, and Los Angeles and San Jose, California.

Sources

Sree Rama Dasa Mission. www.srdm.org/.

Sri Caitanya Sanga

Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math, Kolerganj, PO Nabadwip, Dist. Nadia, West Bengal, India

The Sri Caitanya Sanga (formerly the Gaudiya Vaishnava Society) was founded in the mid-1980s by B. V. Tripurari Swami, previously a leader in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Tripurari Swami had met A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) in 1972, a year after he had joined ISKCON. Tripurari was initiated into sannyas (the renounced life) in 1975, two years prior to Prabhupada’s death. In the years after Prabhupada’s death, ISKCON was divided between reformists who denied the new initiating gurus (teachers) a status similar to that held by Prabhupada and the more conservative leaders who saw the new gurus as carrying on a guru lineage that made it proper to receive veneration much as Prabhupada had. Tripurari was among the reformists who left the organization and turned to Bhakti Rakshak Sridhara Maharaj (1895–1988), Prabhupada’s godbrother. (The godbrother relationship exists when two or more are initiated by the same guru.) Remaining in India when Prabhupada went to America, Sridhara Maharaj based his work in the Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math center in West Bengal. However, he slowly acquired a worldwide network of centers that had placed themselves under his guidance.

Tripurari and a small group of like-minded ex-ISKCON devotees placed themselves under Sridhara Maharaj’s direction. The Gaudiya Vaishnava Society emerged as the organizational expression of the group’s work in the United States. Almost immediately, the group ran into resistance from the city of San Francisco, California, which had passed an ordinance regulating the society’s selling of their literature on the streets. In 1986 they took the city to court and won an injunction against the enforcement of the ordinance. For a number of years, beginning in 1988, the sanga issued a magazine, The Clarion Call.

The sanga is at one with ISKCON in belief and practice. The issues that divided them have largely been resolved with the dominance of the reform party in ISKCON in the 1980s. However, the society now flows out of the lineage of Sridhara Maharaj, a lineage not found in ISKCON. The sanga emphasizes a theistic Vaishnava Hinduism, follows a path of devotional service and temple worship (bhakti yoga), and emphasizes as a primary spiritual practice the repetition of the Hare Krishna Mantra:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

B. V. Tripurari Swami currently resides at Audarya, a retreat center near Philo, Mendocino County, California.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Sri Caitanya Sanga. www.swami.org/.

“Clarion Call, a Classy New Journal from S. F. Gaudiyas.” Hinduism Today 10, no. 9 (September 1988): 1, 17.

Sridhara Deva Goswami, Srila Bhakti Raksaka. The Golden Volcano of Divine Love. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1984.

———. The Guru and His Grace. San Rafael, CA: Mandala Publishing, 1983.

———. The Hidden Treasure of the Absolute. West Bengal, India: Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math, 1985.

Thakur, Srila Bhaktivedanta. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: His Life and Precepts. Brooklyn, NY: Gaudiya Press, 1987.

Tripurari, Swami B. V. Ancient Wisdom for Modern Ignorance. Eugene, OR: Clarion Call Publishing, 1994.

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mandal

2900 N Rodeo Gulch Rd., Soquel, CA 95073

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) was the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the Hare Krishna movement in the West. Before he died, he informed his senior disciples that in his absence they should consult a higher authority. He instructed them to approach his trusted and revered godbrother (godbrother in the sense that they were both initiated by the same guru), Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Goswami. Both Prabhupada and Sridhara were initiated by Bhaktisiddanthanta Sarswati Thakur, the president-archarya of the Guadiya Math, which had been the main Krishna-consciousness organization in Bengal. In the wake of the disruption of the Guadiya Math in India, Sridhara was one of several disciples who founded an independent organization; his was called Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math.

In the wake of Prabhupada’s death, intense theological and organizational disputes emerged within the society and its governing board. Some of Prabhupada’s disciples, following his instructions, turned to Sridhara for guidance and subsequently broke with the society and founded Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mandal as an American branch of the math. Since its founding in the early 1980s, the Mandal has carried on an active publishing program through its Guardian of Devotion Press, which has issued many of Sridhara’s books.

Membership

There is one temple affiliated with the mandal, with approximately 100 members. There are affiliated U.S. centers in California, Utah, Oregon, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Hawaii. There are also centers in England, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary, India, Canada, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Fiji, Russia, Ukraine, Abkhazie, Ecuador, Mauritius, and Australia.

Sources

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mandal. www.scsmath.com/centers.html.

Sridhara Deva Goswami, Bhakti Raksaka. Parpanna Jivanamrta: Lifenectar of the Surrendered Souls. Nabadwip Dham, West Bengal, India: Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, 1988.

———. The Search for Sri Krsna: Reality the Beautiful. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1983.

———. Sri Guru and His Grace. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1983.

———. Srimad Bhagavad Gita. 374 pp.

———. Subjective Evolution of Consciousness: Play of the Sweet Absolute. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1988.

Thakura, Bhaktivinoda. The Bhagavat: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics, and Its Theology. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1985.

Sri Chinmoy Centre

PO Box 32433, Jamaica, NY 11432

Sri Chinmoy Kumar Ghose was born in Bengal, India, in 1931. He entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at the age of 12. After two decades of intensive spiritual discipline, he responded to an inner command and came to the West in 1964 to be of service to seekers in that part of the world. He taught a path of yoga that directed the practitioner to conscious union with God. He also encouraged an active, dynamic life of service to the divine in humanity. His path called for a disciplined life involving regular meditation, living and working in the world, vegetarianism, and celibacy. Sri Chinmoy passed away on October 11, 2007, at his home in Queens, New York.

As a spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy guided his students’meditative discipline and spiritual growth. He never charged any fee for his service and taught that the path of love, bhakti (devotion), and surrender to the divine is the easiest way to God, but he accepted all religions and had the utmost devotion for Christ, Buddha, Krishna, and the other great religious figures of the world. He encouraged athletics as a means to the illumination of the physical consciousness, and his centers around the world have sponsored many running events. Among other activities, his students sponsor the Sri Chinmoy Oneness–Home Peace Run, a 70-nation relay run for the cause of world peace that has been held every other year since 1987.

Sri Chinmoy was a prolific author, composer, and artist. He wrote more than 1,300 books of poetry, essays, and questions and answers, and he composed more than 13,000 devotional songs in English and his native Bengali. He also completed more than 4 million “soul-bird” drawings, depictions of the human spirit in the form of birds, which have been exhibited worldwide. Often described as an international ambassador of peace, he offered hundreds of meditative concerts to the cause of world peace and discussed peace with dozens of world leaders.

Inspired by his activities, authorities around the world have dedicated natural wonders or other sites to the cause of peace in his name. Collectively known as “Sri Chinmoy Peace–Blossoms,” these have spread throughout the world, to Ottawa, Canada; Canberra, Australia; Auckland, Australia; the Swiss Matterhorn; Vietnam’s Mekong Delta; Niagara Falls in Canada; Russia’s Lake Baikhal; and various locations in the United States.

Membership

In 1995 the centers reported 5,000 members worldwide; 1,500 in the United States, and 1,000 in Canada.

Periodicals

Anahata Nada.

Sources

Sri Chinmoy Centre. www.srichinmoycentre.org.

Chinmoy, Sri. Arise! Awake! New York: Frederick Fell, 1972.

———. Astrology, the Supernatural, and the Beyond. Hollis, NY: Vishma Press, 1973.

———. My Lord’s Secrets Revealed. New York: Herder and Herder, 1971.

———. A Sri Chinmoy Primer. Forest Hills, NY: Vishma Press, 1974.

Madhuri [Nancy Elizabeth Sands]. The Life of Sri Chinmoy. Jamaica, NY: Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1972.

Sri Premananda Center

For information: [email protected]

Sri Premananda (b. 1951) is an enlightened teacher from Sri Lanka who as a child was reported to be spiritually precocious, with abilities to materialize objects, to heal people, and to know the past and future. By age 14 he had realized that these abilities were not common to everyone and that he could use them to assist others. He subsequently dedicated his life to the divine and to helping people to know the truth and purpose of their existence. As a following developed, he took the vows of the renounced life and emerged as Swami Premananda.

At age 17 he started an ashram, Sarva Matha Shanti Nilayam (Abode of Peace for all Religions) in the Gandhi Hall, Matale, as an expression of his desire to find harmony in the different religious communities—Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. He later adopted the more expressly Hindu name Poobalakrishna Ashram. That ashram was bombed in 1983 during conflict between Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka. He relocated to Fathimanagar (near Trichy), Tamil Nadu, India, where he built a new ashram. The Sri Premananda Ashram formally opened in 1989. Here he was free to advocate his ideal: that people should see the divine in all religions. Foreigners came to India, discovered his ashram, and stayed to learn from him, then went home and founded Sri Premananda centers in countries around the world.

Sri Premananda’s global mission was blocked in 1994 when he was arrested and in 1997 convicted of the rape of several girls who lived in the orphanage he had founded. He received two life sentences and remains in jail in India. Many of his devotees around the world remain convinced that he was wrongly accused and convicted, and his movement continues in 19 countries.

Membership

Not reported. There are Sri Premananda centers in the United States and Canada.

Sources

Sri Premananda Centers. www.sripremananda.org/.

Sri Rama Foundation

PO Box 2550, Santa Cruz, CA 95063

The Sri Rama Foundation was formed in 1974 as the vehicle for the teachings of Baba Hari Dass; the foundation claims to direct any profits to support homeless children in India. Baba Hari Dass was born in Almora District, India, in the Himalayan foothills. He left home at the age of eight to join a renunciate group in the jungle. He became a mauni sadhu (a person who accepts a vow of silence); nevertheless, he has led an active life managing ashrams and teaching yoga. He developed his own system of teaching the traditional ashtanga (eightlimbed) yoga. In 1971 some Western students persuaded him to come to the United States, and he began to hold regular satsangs (gatherings of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate spiritual truths) with a group of disciples who gathered around him.

Ashtanga yoga is the system of the legendary figure Patanjali; it was compiled from early teachings on yoga. Baba Hari Dass continues Patanjali’s teachings of a process involving eight parts: yama (restraints); niyama (observances); asana (postures); pranayama (breathing); pratyahara (withdrawal of the mind from sense perception); dharana (concentration); dhyana (meditation); and samadhi (superconsciousness). His teaching is based on a strong foundation of Samkhya philosophy, a spirit of devotion, and a deep understanding of Vedantic nondualism.

The major center of Baba Hari Dass’s students is the Mount Madonna Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Watsonville, California. In the mid-1970s a group of Babi Hari Dass’s devotees In Vancouver, British Columbia, inaugurated the Dharma Sara series of publications, which included several books and a magazine, Dharma Sara, now discontinued. Another group formed the Ashtanga Yoga Fellowship in Ontario and sponsors annual events with Baba Hari Dass. In 1980 Baba Hari Dass founded Shri Ram Orphanage in the Himalayan foothills of northern India. The orphanage is home to 50 children. The foundation also supports a school for 300 children and a medical clinic in Haridwar, India.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Sri Rama Foundation. sriramfoundation.org/sriramfoundation/.

Between Pleasure and Pain: The Way of Conscious Living. Sumas, WA: Dharma Sara Publications, 1976.

Dass, Baba Hari. Ashtanga Yoga Primer. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Publishing, 1981.

———. Hariakhan Baba, Known, Unknown. Davis, CA: Sri Rama Foundation, 1975.

———. Silence Speaks. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Foundation, 1977.

———. Sweeper to Saint. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Publishing, 1980.

SRV Association of America

c/o Interfaith Peace Temple, 20 Jennings Rd., Greenville, NY 12083

The SRV Association of America is an international fellowship the promotes the teachings of Advaita Vedanta as taught by Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda. The group’s outlook includes an affirmation of the “absolute oneness of all existence, the underlying harmony of all religions and cultures, and the practice of contemplative disciplines along the path of spiritual realization, not simply to benefit oneself but to benefit humanity.”

The association was founded by Lex Hixon (1941–1995). As a young man Hixon was inspired to undertake a spiritual search through an encounter with the Zen Buddhist teacher Alan Watts and, later, with the Vedanta teacher Swami Nikhivananda, who encouraged his entrance into the Ph.D. program in comparative religion at Columbia University in New York City. In 1980 Hixon became a sheikh with the Khalwati-Jerrahi Sufi Order and assumed the care of four communities of Sufis. In 1983 he and his wife, Sheila, began a formal three-year study of the mystical theology of Eastern Orthodoxy at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, the American seminary of the Orthodox Church in America. In the last decade of his life, he tried to integrate the four spiritual traditions: Vedanta, Buddhism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Jerrahi Sufism.

Hixon saw the key to life, however, in his encounter with Vedanta, a fact highlighted in his 1992 book, Great Swan: Meetings with Ramakrishna. He saw Ramakrishna as an inspiration for creating a global society based on the intuitive sense of the sacred. The SRV Association reflects this central concern.

Today the SRV Association is headed by an international board of directors. Although it provides guidance and teachings in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, it emphasizes no single doctrinal or denominational affiliation. This outlook allows it to be open to all “authentic” religious practices and philosophical teachings as well as all forms of altruistic, nonpolitical activity.

The association’s present endeavors are centered in the Upstate New York Interfaith Peace Temple/Center for Spiritual Living near Albany, New York, a place for meditation, reflection, and interfaith worship. The temple is dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada, and Swami Vivekananda as symbols of universal truth; it is modeled after the principles of “global education for human unity and world civilization” as presented by Swami Nityasvarupananda, a disciple of Sarada Devi.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

SRV Association of America. www.universaltemple.org/3version/alexsrv.html.

“Lex Hixon.” www.srv.org/LexHixonBio.html.

Nityaswarupananda, Swami. “Global Education for Human Unity and World Civilization.” www.members.global2000.net./~sarada/WC/WCC1.html.

Swami Kuvalayananda Yoga Foundation

339 Fitzwater St., Philadelphia, PA 19147

The Swami Kuvalayanananda Yoga (SKY) Foundation was founded by Dr. Vijayendra Pratap, who earned a Ph.D. in applied psychology in India at the Bombay University. Dr. Pratap was the student of Swami Kuvalayanandaji, the founder of Kaivalyadhama, the famous yoga center in Bombay, and served as its assistant director before coming to the United States.

The SKY Foundation offers classes in hatha yoga at all levels, trains teachers, and holds classes on yogic philosophy based on Patanjali (the ancient writer who put into simple, cogent language the theory and techniques of yoga). One of the purposes of the foundation is to research the older yogic traditions in the light of modern knowledge; it has sponsored several conferences on science and yoga. The Yoga Research Society was started in 1924 in order to help students and researchers better understand yoga through a scientific approach. The Philadelphia headquarters are above the Garland of Letters Bookstore, which is operated by the foundation. The foundation considers itself an educational organization rather than a religious or spiritual center.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Swami Kuvalayananda Yoga Foundation. www.skyfoundation.org/home.asp • www.yogaresearchsociety.com/aboutYRS.asp.

SYDA Foundation

371 Brickman Rd., Box 600, South Fallsburg, NY 12779

Alternate Address

International headquarters, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, PO Ganeshpuri, Dist. Thoma, Maharastra, India.

Swami Muktananda Paramahansa (1908–1982) was the leading disciple of Bhagwan Nityananda (d. 1961), a Siddha master who in his later years settled in Ganeshpuri, India. Muktananda, or Baba, as he was called by his followers, left home at the age of 15 to wander through India studying philosophy and mastering the different branches of yoga. In 1947 he sought out Bhagawan Nityananda, whom he had met in his youth, and received shaktipat initiation (for the awakening of kundalini, the inner transformative energy) from him. After nine years of intensive spiritual practices under his guru’s guidance, Muktananda attained self-realization. Before his death Nityananda transferred the power of the Siddha lineage to Muktananda. Following his guru’s wishes, Muktananda established an ashram, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, in a small village called Gavdevi near the town of Ganeshpuri. It is considered the mother ashram of the movement.

In the 1960s, the first American seekers began to arrive. In 1970 some of these devotees requested Muktananda to undertake his first world tour, which lasted three months and included stops in Europe, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Australia. Baba Ram Dass accompanied Muktananda on much of this tour. Soon after the tour the first centers began to appear in the United States. Also as a result of this visit, Westerners came in even greater numbers to Ganeshpuri; among them was Werner Erhard, the founder of Erhard Training Seminars (EST). At Erhard’s invitation, Muktananda returned to the West in 1974, this time for two years. His final journey to the West, made in 1978, lasted for three years.

In 1974 the foundation was established to make the teachings of Siddha Yoga available to seekers around the world. SYDA oversees the Siddha Yoga curriculum, the publication of books and magazines, the production of audiovisuals, and the administration of the several educational and humanitarian projects, including the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute (in India), the PRASDA Project, and the Prison Project, sponsored by the practitioners. The foundation is headed by a board of directors.

The Muktabodha Indological Research Institute is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the scriptures and traditions of India through scholarly publications, research and study programs, and archival projects. The Vedashala Project preserves the mantras and rituals of the Vedas. The institute is accredited by the University of Pune, India, for postgraduate studies.

Before his death Swami Muktananda designated Swami Chidvilasananda, known as Gurumayi, as his successor. He had trained her since childhood to succeed him. At that time he also appointed another successor, Swami Nityananda, Chidvilasananda’s brother, who retired from that position in 1985.

The path of Siddha Yoga is based upon shakipat initiation, or the awakening of the spiritual energy (kundalini) through the grace of the guru. The practice of the yoga includes meditation, chanting, selfless service, contemplation, and devotion to the guru.

Membership

There is no formal membership in Siddha yoga meditation. In 1997 there were more than 500 Siddha Yoga Meditation Centers throughout the world and residential centers in Australia, England, Mexico, and the United States.

Educational Facilities

Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, South Fallsburg, New York.

Periodicals

Darshan • Transformation Neeleswari • Siddha Yoga. Both are available from Gurudev Siddha Peeth, PO Ganeshpuri, Dist. Thoma, Maharastra, India.

Remarks

During the 1980s the Siddha Yoga Dham had to weather two major scandals. Shortly after Swami Muktananda’s death, several of his close associates left the movement and denounced him for taking sexual liberties with female disciples. The accusations became an occasion for widespread discussions of the nature and qualification of leadership in Indian-based movements in the West. Then, in 1986, the Illustrated Weekly of India published two stories concerning charges made by Subash Shetty, until his retirement in 1985 known as Swami Nityananda, about his sister, Swami Chidvilasananda. A defamation case was filed against the magazine, which resulted in a full retraction and apology in 1987. Neither incident significantly undermined the membership or influence of the group. Swami Nityananda, following his withdrawal from work with Swami Chidvalasananda, established a new organization, Shanti Mandir Seminars, and is continuing his work through it.

Sources

SYDA Foundation. www.siddhayoga.org.

Brook, Douglas Renfrew, et al. Meditation Revolution: A History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage. South Fallsburg, NY: Agama Press, 1997. 709 pp.

Caldwell, Sarah. “The Heart of the Secret: A Personal and Scholarly Encounter with Shakta Tantrism in Siddha Yoga.” Nova Religio 5, 1 (October 2001): 9–51.

Muktananda, Swami. Guru. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.

———. Light on the Path. Oakland, CA: SYDA Foundation, 1972.

———. Play of Consciousness. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

———. Reflections of the Self. New York: SYDA Foundation, 1982.

Paramahansa, Muktananda. Bhagawan Nityananda, His Life and Mission. Ganespuri, India: Shree Gurudev Ashram, n.d.

Prajananda, Swami. A Search for the Self. Ganeshpuri, India: Durudev Siddha Peeth, 1979.

Tantrika International

PO Box 516, Loveland, OH 45140-3065

Tantrika International was founded by Bodhi Avinasha, a prominent tantric yoga teacher who began her spiritual career as a sannyasin (one who practices a renounced way of life) with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) and Osho International Commune. She later claimed mystical contact with the legendary Himalayan master known as Babaji (first introduced to the West by Pramahansa Yogananda). She gained initial fame as the coauthor of the best selling book Jewel in the Lotus (now available in seven languages). Through the 1990s she was a popular workshop and seminar instructor.

As an independent tantra teacher, Bodhi Avinasha developed Ipsalu Tantra, which she offers as an accelerated path for the mastery of sexual, emotional, and mental energies; she claims that this method safely activates the kundalini (a latent energy that tantrics believe resides at the base of the spine). Tantric practice traditionally aims at activating the kundalini, which, according to this teaching, travels up the spine and brings enlightenment. The key to this practice is the use of the cobra breath, a form of breathing that purportedly heightens the rise of kundalini.

Tantrika International bases its teachings on everyday experience (as opposed to abstract analysis or the search for absolute truth). It understands that one’s perspective will continue to change throughout life. Individuals are invited to see the external world as a mirror of their internal states. They create their life experience. Freedom from the past comes from taking responsibility for the present. Then, as the individual identifies with his or her divine inner self, he or she can see the divine order in the totality.

Tantrika International offers a variety of events, including weekend intensive seminars, week-long retreats, and correspondence courses. Tantrika International also offers support and resources for the nurturing of Ipsalu Tantra communities around the world. Such communities begin with partnering with one of the Ipsalu-certified teachers and a couple who wish to share tantra with others in their hometown. Tantrika International teachers trained to offer Ipsula Tantra may be found in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Bulgaria, and New Zealand.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Tantrika International. http://ipsalutantra.org

Avinasha, Bodhi, and Sunyata Sanaswati. Jewel in the Lotus: The Tantric Path to Higher Consciousness. Fairfield, IA: Sunstar Publishing, 2000.

———. The Ipsalu Formula: A Method for TantraBliss. Valley Village, CA: Ipsalu Publishing, 2006.

Temple of Cosmic Religion

174 Santa Clara Ave., Oakland, CA 94610

In 1966, while attending the Kumbha Mela (ritual bathing) Festival in the Ganges River, an independent Hindu teacher, later known as Satguru Sant Keshavadas (1934–1997), was told by a holy man named Lord Panduranga Vittala, “Go to the West; spread the cosmic religion.” When Keshavadas returned to Delhi, the advice was reinforced in a vision. The following year he began a tour of Europe and the Middle East and arrived in the United States in May. In 1968 he founded a center in Washington, D.C., as the U.S. headquarters of the Dasashram International Center in India. In the mid-1970s the headquarters moved to Southfield, Michigan, near Detroit, and adopted the name of the Temple of Cosmic Religion, a title long used in the movement.

In bringing Hinduism to the West, Keshavadas envisioned the beginning of a world cosmic religion that would unite all faiths. According to this cosmic religion, truth is one, and all paths lead to the realization of God. Keshavadas teaches yoga, meditation, and devotion to God through chanting and singing (bhakti yoga, as discussed in the introductory material for this volume). The concepts of karma and reincarnation are central to the beliefs of the religion.

The world headquarters of the Temple of Cosmic Religion is located in Bangalore, India, at the Panduranga Temple. Five other temples have been established in India; there are additional temples in England, Trinidad, and the United States.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Temple of Cosmic Religion. www.templeofcosmicreligion.org.

Keshavadasasji, Sadguru. The Doctrine of Reincarnation and Liberation. Bangalore, India: Dasasharama Research Publications, 1970.

Keshavadasji, Sant. This Is Wisdom. Privately printed, 1975.

———. The Purpose of Life, New York: Vantage Press, 1978.

———. Sadguru Speaks. Washington, DC: Temple of Cosmic Religion, 1975.

Life and Teachings of Sadguru Sant Keshavadas: A Commemoration. Southfield, MI: Temple of Cosmic Religion, 1977.

Mukundadas (Michael Allen Makowsky). Minstrel of Love. Nevada City, CA: Hansa Publications, 1980.

Temple of Kriya Yoga

2414 N. Kedzie, Chicago, IL 60647

The Temple of Kriya Yoga was founded by Goswami Kriyananda (born Melvin Higgins and not to be confused with the Swami Kriyananda, who founded the Ananda Ashrama). The temple is headquartered in a temple building on the north side of Chicago.

Kriyananda studied with a guru, spoken of only as Sri Sri Shelliji in the temple literature, who passed to him the kriya yoga tradition of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Kriyananda began teaching yoga in the 1940s and opened the temple in Chicago in the 1960s. Kriyananda, an accomplished astrologer, also opened the College of Occult Sciences, which offered classes in a variety of esoteric subjects.

During the late 1970s the temple abandoned its rented facilities in downtown Chicago for its new headquarters. Associated with the Chicago center is a retreat in South Haven, Michigan. In 1977 the Kriyananda Healing Center was established as a holistic health facility adjacent to the temple. There traditional Western medicine is supplemented by a program emphasizing yoga and meditation, fasting, biofeedback, and massage.

Kriyananda follows the yoga system of Yogananda, and over the years he has authored a variety of books elucidating kriya yoga, meditation, and astrology. In his view religion provides a deep personal understanding of the nature and purpose of God and the Universe. He teaches the oneness of law, spirit, and love and their identity with God. He affirms the meaningfulness of the universe and the possibility of attaining illumination and fulfillment (through the practice of kriya yoga) in this lifetime.

Membership

There are several hundred temple members and many more individuals who receive the benefits of the temple through its classes, programs and astrology services.

Periodicals

The Flame of Kriya.

Sources

Temple of Kriya Yoga. www.yogakriya.org.

Kriyananda, Goswami. The Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, n.d.

———. The Blue Lotus Sutra. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, n.d.

———. Dictionary of Basic Astrological Terms. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, n.d.

———. Pathway to God-Consciousness. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, 1970.

———. Yoga: Text for Teachers and Advanced Students. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, 1976.

Traditional Yoga Academy

6530 Annie Oakley Dr. #2825, Henderson, NV 89014

The Traditional Yoga Academy is the U.S. outpost of the Movement for Spiritual Integration in the Absolute (M.I.S.A.). M.I.S.A. was founded in 1990 in postrevolutionary Romania by Gregorian Bivolaru (b. 1952). As a child, Bivolaru had recurring dreams in which he was a Tibetan yogi who had attained a high level of spirituality. From these dreams he began to “remember” various yoga techniques that he began to practice on his own. His practice led to spiritual experiences that culminated in his attaining spiritual enlightenment when he was nineteen years old. He later was able to connect what he had experienced with the teachings he found in the books of several modern spiritual teachers, especially Ramakrishna (1836– 1886), Sivananda (1887–1963), and Yogananda (1893–1952).

Bivolau, or Grieg, as he is generally called, started to teach yoga in Bucharest in 1978. Initially he was received warmly by the authorities with the Romanian Ministry of Health and the Association of Psychosomatic Medicine of Bucharest, but in the 1980s he fell victim to dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s negative opinions of transcendental meditation. Romania banned yoga as part of a general ban on all oriental teachings, and for several yeasr Bivolau was imprisoned.

It was not until 1990 that Grieg was allowed to resume teaching. Once opened, however, M.I.S.A. expanded rapidly, and soon Grieg’s unique approach to yoga was being taught all over the country, and then expanded throughout Europe as accomplished students became teachers.

M.I.S.A. yoga is based in ancient teachings. Patanjali’s ancient compendium of yoga, the “Yoga Sutras,” provided a definition built around eight steps to perfection: asthanga (aspiration); yama (perfection in social morality) and niyama (perfection in individual morality); asanas (postures); pranayama (breathing exercises); pratyahara (withdrawing); dharana (concentration); dhyana (meditation); and samadhi (sublime ecstasy). M.I.S.A. situates this practice in a larger context of tantra and meditation. Together, yoga, tantra, and meditation become a path for continuous transformation. In the tantric discipline, students learn to control and sublimate the creative potential of sexual energy, but tantra embraces all aspects of life, with applications for all.

The Traditional Yoga Academy is located in Henderson, Nevada. It offers regular classes and workshops in Las Vegas and Sandy Springs (suburban Atlanta), Georgia.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Traditional Yoga Academy. www.traditionalyogacenter.com.

Truth Consciousness

c/o Sacred Mountain Ashram, 10668 Gold Hill Rd., Boulder, CO 80302-9716

Alternate Address

68 Lulla Nagar, Pune 411040, Maharashtra, India.

Truth Consciousness was founded by Swami Amar Jyoti in 1974 and is devoted to a vision of what it perceives as truth and the transformation of human consciousness into divine consciousness. Prabhushri Swamiji, as he is called by his devotees, was born in northwest India in 1928. A few months before his graduation from college, he renounced his seemingly destined life of comfort and success to follow an inner dictum, “Know yourself and you shall know everything.” After a decade of sadhana (spiritual practices) and meditation in the Himalayas, he achieved his goal. He then began traveling throughout India and in 1960, at the request of disciples, founded Jyoti Ashram in Pune, in the state of Maharashtra. In 1961 Prabhushri Swamiji visited the United States for the first time and then returned to Pune, concentrating for a decade on his work in India.

Prabhushri Swamiji’s way is a classical path of spirituality based on the principles of dharma (living according to divine law). He stresses principles such as truthfulness, humility, purity, and devotion. With compassion, patience, and wisdom, the guru attempts carefully to guide each disciple toward a natural unfolding toward the divine.

Prabhushri Swamiji visited the United States again in 1973 and at that time founded his first ashram in the West, Sacred Mountain Ashram in Boulder, Colorado. Truth Consciousness is the nonprofit corporation that ties together the American centers. There are two ashrams (for renunciates) and two community centers for individuals, couples, and families who wish to live a spiritually oriented life under the direct guidance of the master.

The ashrams and community centers offer programs year round, and sincere seekers are welcome. Satsang (an assembly of persons who listen to and talk about spiritual truth) is held twice weekly and includes devotional music (chanting) and meditation. Other regular programs include guru aarati (morning prayers and worship), weekly group meditations, and weekend and extended retreats.

Membership

There is no formal membership. There are two Truth Consciousness ashrams in the United States: Sacred Mountain Ashram in Boulder, Colorado, and Desert Ashram in Tucson, Arizona. A community center is located adjacent to or near each Ashram. An estimated several hundred individuals are affiliated with the organization. In India, Ananda Niketan, the trust founded by Swami Amar Jyoti, maintains Jyoti Ashram in Pune, four hours from Bombay. There is also a center in New Zealand.

Periodicals

Light of Consciousness–Journal of Spiritual Awakening (USA). • Chinmaya Jeevan–Conscious Living (India).

Sources

Truth Consciousness. truthconsciousness.org/TC_Ashrams.htm.

Frey, Kessler. Satsang Notes of Swami Amar Jyoti. Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1977.

Jyoti, Swami Amar. Dawning: Eternal Wisdom Heritage for Today. Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1991.

———. Retreat Into Eternity, Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1981.

———. Spirit of Himalaya. Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1985.

Vedanta Centre and Ananda Ashrama

130 Beechwood St., Cohassat, MA 02025

Alternate Address

Box 8555, La Crescenta, CA 91224-0555.

The Ananda Ashram of La Crescenta, California, and the Vedanta Centre of Cohasset, Massachusetts, continue the work begun in the early twentieth century by Swami Paramananda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. Paramananda (1884–1940) was born Suresh Chandra Guha Thakurta. A pioneer swami of the Ramakrishna Order, he came to the United States in 1906 to assist Swami Abhedananda at the New York Vedanta Society. In 1909 he moved to Boston to open a Vedanta center there. He also established a monastic community for American women. His first disciple was Laura Glenn, better known by her religious name, Sister Devamata. She became his assistant in 1910 but is best remembered for her literary work. She wrote many books, edited both Swami Vivekananda’s and Swami Paramananda’s lectures, and was the chief editor of the Message of the East, a monthly periodical published without interruption for 52 years.

During his 34-year ministry in the United States, Paramananda lectured all over the United States and Europe. He established the Ananda Ashrama in La Crescenta in 1923 and a second ashrama in Cohasset in 1929. In 1931 Sri Ramakrishna Ananda Ashrama was established in his name in Dacca, now in Bangladesh. This ashrama was moved to Calcutta after the partition of the India and Pakistan. There are now two branches that serve destitute women, orphan children, and others in need. During Paramananda’s lifetime all of these centers were part of the Ramakrishna Math (monastery) and Mission, whose headquarters are at Belur Math, near Calcutta.

After Paramananda’s death in 1940, his centers were excommunicated from the parent order because he designated as his successor an Indian woman, Srimata Gayatri Devi (1906–1995). She came to the United States in 1926 and became the first Indian woman to teach Vedanta in the West. In 1952 she consolidated the eastern work by moving the Boston Vedanta Center to the ashrama in Cohasset, some 20 miles south of Boston.

The ashrama and center teach Vedanta. The essence of Vedanta’s tenets are that truth or God is one without a second; that an individual’s real nature is divine; that all paths lead to the same goal; and that the purpose of human life is to realize God within one’s own soul. It shares these beliefs with the Ramakrishna Order (the break between the ashrama and the order being purely administrative).

For 55 years, until her death in 1995, Srimata Gavatri Devi was the spiritual mother of the several ashrams in the United States and India. She appointed an American woman, Srimata Sudha Puri Devi (Dr. Susan Schrager, b.1942) as her successor. The ashramas are home to monastic women. Associated with them are number of dedicated householders who consider them their spiritual home. Many others attend the weekly services and classes. Vedanta Centre (Cohasset) publishes the books of Swami Paramananda and several of the female leaders, including Sister Daya (Georgina Walton Jones) and Srimata Gayatri Devi. It also sells casettes and CDs of ashrama devotional music.

Membership

Neither the ashrama nor the center is a membership organizations. There are approximately 60 residents of the four ashramas (two in India and two in America). An estimated 1,500 persons look to the ashramas for spiritual guidance.

Sources

Vedanta Centre and Ananda Ashrama. www.vedantacentre.org.

Devamata, Sister. Swami Paramananda and His Work. 2 vols. La Crescenta, CA: Ananda Ashrama, 1926–1941.

Devi, Srimata Gayatri. One Life’s Pilgrimage. Cohasset, MA Vedanta Centre, 1977.

Hold Aloft the Light. La Crescenta, CA: Ananda Ashrama, 1973.

Levinsky, Sara Ann. A Bridge of Dreams. West Stockbridge, MA: Inner Traditions, 1984.

Paramananda, Swami. The Path of Devotion. Boston, MA: Vedanta Center, 1907.

———. Vedanta in Practice. Boston, MA: Vedanta Center, 1917.

Vedantic Center

3528 N. Triunfo Canyon Rd., Agoura, CA 91301

The Vedantic Center was founded in 1975 in Los Angeles by Alice Coltrane (b. 1937), an initiate of Swami Satchidananda, the founder of the Integral Yoga International, with whom she had journeyed to India and Sri Lanka. Raised in Detroit, Coltrane devoted her early life to music, as did her late husband, the jazz legend John Coltrane, and like him attained a high level of success and fame (Alice on the piano, John on the saxophone). In 1968, at the age of 31, she entered a period of both spiritual isolation and reawakening. She also received an initiation into the renounced order of sannyas but was instructed not to don the ochre robe, symbol of the renounced life, until 1975. During the early 1970s she released a series of albums expressing her spiritual pilgrimage and devotional life.

In 1975 Coltrane emerged as Swami Turiyasangitananda. A few months later she organized the Vedantic Center. She authored several books, including Monument Eternal and Endless Wisdom, and began to build a following. In 1983 the center purchased 48 acres of land in rural southern California, near the town of Agoura, and established a community, Sai Anantam Ashram, for the center’s members.

The Vedantic Center is unique among Hindu organizations in being led by an African-American and in drawing members predominantly from the African American community. Although beginning with the yoga system passed to her by Swami Satchidananda, Turiyasangitananda has developed an eclectic blend of Eastern philosophy that draws on Western spiritual traditions as well. She teaches that the purpose of human life is to advance spiritually. The highest stage of life is devotional service (bhakti yoga), rendered unto the supreme lord (known in his three aspects as Brahma, Vishnu or Krishna, and Siva). In this light devotional singing has attained an important role at the ashram, and Turiyasangitananda has composed new music with a decidedly Western flavor for the traditional bhajans (devotional songs).

The weekly schedule at Sai Anantam Ashram begins with Sunday school for children. There is worship, including chanting and satsang discourses by Swami Turiyasangitananda, on Sunday afternoons. A prayer service occurs on Wednesday evening. The center operates a bookstore at the entrance to the ashram grounds.

Membership

As of 1995 approximately 30 people lived at Sai Anantam. A small number of nonresidents also attend the ashram’s worship services.

Periodicals

Sai Anantam.

Sources

Vedantic Center. www.saiquest.com.

Turiyasangitananda, A. C. Endless Wisdom. Los Angeles: Avatar Book Institute, 1981.

———. Monument Eternal. Los Angeles: Vedantic Book Press, 1977.

Vedic Society of America

PO Box 926, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272-0926

The Vedic Society of America was founded by Maha Guru Ji Dr. Pandit Bhek Pati Sinha, a Brahmin priest from Bihar, Bengal, India. He had studied at the Universities of Calcutta and Patna in India and eventually received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City. Between 1948 and 1952 he lived in various parts of the world and then settled in the United States. Through the 1960s he taught political science in several institutions of higher learning on the East Coast.

Sinha founded the Vedic Society of America in New York City in 1950 at a time when there were very few Hindu options available to religious seekers. The society was designed to encourage spiritual disciplines, provide a sense of reverence for all life, promote brotherhood, and offer an awareness of the Vedas, the ancient scripture of India. A second center was opened in Pacific Palisades, California, in 1960. Sinha trained leaders who assumed ministerial duties at the two centers, leading the weekly worship services.

The society taught the 10 Vedic moral commandments of nonviolence (ahimsa), truthfulness, honesty, inhering in the consciousness of God, detachment, purity of body, contentment, perseverance in the consciousness of truth, study of the scriptures, and devotion to God. It taught that truth was God and true religion was the perception and realization of truth. Each individual is substantively divine and has the ability to realize that divinity. The society taught that humans are their own saviors and that growth in spiritual illumination and love and service to all is the only alternative in life.

The society operated a retreat center, Vedashram, and offered a correspondence course in its religious teachings. It published a periodical, Lila. Sinha authored several books, and the society members recorded two records of Vedic music and chants that were distributed through the Vedic Book and Gift Shop in Pacific Palisades.

The society continued to exist through the 1970s, but in recent years attempts to contact it have not been successful. Its present status is uncertain.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Jayne, Linda. The Vedic Society of America: New York and California. Pacific Palisades, CA: Vedic Publishing House, 1968.

Veerashaiva Samaja of North America

PO Box 360380, Milpitas, CA 95036-0380

Veerashaiva Samaja of North America, founded in 1978, is an organization operating primarily among Indian Americans that seeks to perpetuate a form of Shaivite Hinduism known as Veerashaivism (or Lingayatism). Veerashaivism is traced to Shri Basaveshwar, a politician with a mystical temperament who lived in twelfth-century India. During his years in office (1157–1167), Shri Basaveshwar took leadership of a revitalization movement centered on worship of and devotion to Shiva as personified in a symbolic emblem known as the Shiva linga (hence the group’s alternate designation as Lingayats). The distinctive mark of Veerashaivism is its advocacy of the wearing of the linga, an act that allows the believer’s body to become a temple in which God dwells. The movement also stood out for its early attempt at egalitarianism, and made an effort to include untouchables.

Worship of Shiva is centered on the five Panchacharas, rules of conduct which when followed are believed to assist in making the body a suitable home for the deity. They call for daily devotion to one’s personal Shiva linga; attention to one’s vocation and duty; affirmation of Shiva as the single deity and of the equality of his devotees; humility; and defense of the community and its beliefs and practices. In addition to the Panchacharas, eight “shields” known as the Ashtavaranas guard believers from the things of the world that can pull them away from their devotion. Chief among these Ashtavaranas are the gurus (spiritual teachers). But the list includes the water used to wash both the linga and the guru’s feet, the food offered to the deity (prasad), holy ash, holy beads, and the mantra (sacred words intoned during worship). The practice of Veerashaivism leads to heightened levels of attainment and eventually to the state of Aikya Sthala, in which the soul separates from the body and merges with Shiva. Veerashaivites tend to ascribe more authority to the Hindu writings known as the agamas than they do to the Vedas.

Veerashaiva Samaja of North America organizes U.S. and Canadian followers of Veerashaivism, many of whom belong to families that have lived outside of India since 1965, into chapters and holds an annual convention. As a whole, it has not built its own temples, and followers often attend local Shaivite temples built to serve the larger Hindu community.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Veerashaiva Samaja of North America. www.vsna.org/.

Lord Shiva. www.shivayoga.net/veerashaiva/welcome.htm.

Vimala Thakar, Friends of

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address

International address: Vimala Thakar Foundation, Huizerweg 46, 1261 Az Balricum, Holland.

Vimala Thakar (b. 1932) is a teacher in the tradition of Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895– 1986). For several years she was a disciple of Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982). Bhave, a close associate of Mohandas Gandhi, initiated a voluntary land reform program in 1951. He traveled throughout India to solicit land from large landowners to give to the landless. The program failed, however, when it was recognized that the land actually transferred to new owners was almost worthless agriculturally. After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Nagpur University, Thakar traveled the country as an exponent of the Land Gift Movement.

A chance meeting with Krishnamurti in 1956 began to change Thakar’s life. She encountered him several times over the next five years and absorbed his message of the need for total inward revolution or transformation. She resigned from the Land Gift Movement and began to travel, teaching and lecturing about her experience and its implications. She advocated the meditative life, which, in her view, begins with the observation and transcendence of mental processes. In her view meditation is not an activity but a state of total being in which there is no movement—a dimension of full life.

Thakar’s travels in Europe and America during the 1960s drew followers who organized the Vimala Thakar Foundation (on the pattern of the Krishnamurti Foundation) in Holland and Friends of Vimala Thakar in California. The organizations facilitate lecture tours, publish and distribute books and tapes of Thakar’s lectures, and organize conferences. Emulating Krishnamurti, she created a group with a minimal structure because she wishes to speak as an individual teacher rather than as the representative of an organization. Thakar resides in Mount Abu, in western India, and no longer travels outside her native land.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Contact with Vimala Thakar. Available from Vimala Thakar Foundation, Huizerweg 46, 1261 AZ Balricum, Holland.

Sources

Vimala Thakar. www.ul.ie/~sextonb/vt.

Thakar, Vimala. Mutation of Mind.

———. On an Eternal Voyage. Ahmedabad, India: New Order Book Co., 1972.

———. Totality in Essence. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971.

———. Towards Total Transformation. Berkeley, CA: Friends of Vimala Thakar, 1970.

“Vimala Thakar Speaks on Yoga.” Yoga Journal (March/April 1977).

Why Meditation? Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.

Vivekananda Vedanta Society

5423 W. Hyde Park Blvd., Chicago, IL 60615

Alternate Address

International headquarters: Ramakrishna Math and Mission, PO Belur Math, Dr. Howrah. W. Bengal 711 202, India.

A branch of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, the Vivekananda Vedanta Society (formerly the Vedanta Society) is the only Hindu organization that was founded in the United States before 1900. In part because of its longevity, it has had a greater impact on the United States than any other Hindu group. The society grew out of the vision of Sri Ramakrishna (1836–1886) and the work of his best-known disciple, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902).

Ramakrishna was a priest in a Calcutta temple of Kali, a branch of Hinduism in which God is worshiped as universal mother. Through long meditation and intense yearning for direct experience of the divine, Ramakrishna attained the state of samadhi, or God-consciousness. Continuous samadhi became his goal, and he followed a number of sadhanas, or paths to enlightenment, both within and outside the Hindu tradition. He became convinced that the divine mother wished him to remain on the threshold between the absolute and the relative in order to serve as an instrument for the spiritual uplift of humanity and that all religions (including Hinduism) are different paths to the same goal, all gods being different revelations of the same Godhead.

A number of disciples, some of them college-trained intellectuals, gathered around Ramakrisha. Before his death some revered him as an avatar, a divine incarnation. Vivekananda, commissioned by Ramakrishna, forged the younger disciples into a monastic brotherhood and gradually convinced them that, as Ramakrishna’s followers, they had a mission not only to seek enlightenment but also to work to alleviate the suffering of humanity through spiritual ministration and social service.

In 1893 Vivekananda came to the United States to teach the universal religion realized by Ramakrishna. He took the World Parliament of Religions by storm, and for two years he lectured throughout the United States, gathering followers. In November 1894 the Vedanta Society of New York was formed, and in the next few years centers were added in San Francisco and Boston. Each is autonomous but works under the Ramakrishna Order. In 1897 Vivekananda returned to India and organized the Ramakrishna Mission, dedicated to serving humanity in a spirit of worship of the divine dwelling within each person.

The three central ideas of Vedanta monistic philosophy are as follows:

  1. Brahman, or God, is the underlying unity manifested in all. Each person in essence is divine, and the goal of human life is to realize this divinity with oneself and in all others. This realization is the true basis of unselfishness; the divine unity is the basis of love.
  2. Maya, the illusion of individual separateness, is an interpretation of the mind. One perceives variety rather than the underlying unity because of the condition of one’s mind—its prejudices, desires, and fears. Absolute reality can be known even in this life through the purified mind: This possibility has been verified by the great mystics of all religions.
  3. The mind may be purified by a variety of means, and each person’s spiritual life evolves according to his or her mental makeup. Four basic yogas or spiritual disciplines have been codified by Vivekananda: devotion, intellectual discrimination, unselfish work, and psychic control. These correspond to the four basic aspects of the human mind: the emotional, intellectual, active, and reflective. The predominance of one or more of these in an individual determines what path that person should follow.

Vedanta differs from most other Hindu movements in stressing principles over personalities. Vivekananda and his successors have emphasized the universal teachings of Vedanta rather than the personality of Ramakrishna. At the same time freedom is given to the individual follower to worship Ramakrishna or any prophet of any religion as a means to enlightenment. Instruction by a qualified teacher is strongly recommended, although too much emphasis on the personality of the teacher is recognized as a danger. Vedanta’s intellectual approach to Hinduism has found expression in the publication of numerous books, including popular editions of the Upanishads, the Bhagava Gita, and the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. The dissemination of these words stimulated interest in Hinduism among many prominent Western intellectuals, including Gerald Heard, Aldous Huxley, and Christopher Isherwood.

Membership

In 2002 the society reported a membership of 250, plus approximately 2,000 contacts. The society has centers with additional members in California; Florida; Illinois; Maryland; Massachusetts; Missouri; New York and Stone Ridge, New York; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; Seattle, Washington; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Australia; Bangladesh; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Bourne End, Buckshire, England; Fiji; Gretz, France; Germany; Kanagawa ken, Japan; Malaysia; Mauritius; Amstelveen, Netherlands; Moscow, Russia; Singapore; South Africa; Sri Lanka; and Switzerland.

Periodicals

Prabudda Bharata (Awakened India). Send orders to 5 Dehi Entally Rd., Calcutta, India 700 014. • Global Vedanta. Send orders to Vedanta Society of Western Washington, 2716 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102.

Sources

Vivekananda Vedanta Society. www.vedantasociety-chicago.org.

Gambhrananda, Swami. History of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1957.

Isherwood, Christopher. Ramakrishna and His Disciples. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965.

———, ed. Vedanta for the Western World. New York: Viking Press, 1945.

Johnson, Clive, ed. Vedanta. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.

Rolland, Romain. The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1970.

VRINDA/The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies

4138 NW 23 Rd. Ave., Miami, FL 33143

VRINDA (The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies) was founded in 1984 by Srila Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Maharaja (b. 1954). A German, Swami Paramadvaiti joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1971 in Dusseldorf and eventually became a temple president. ISKCON’s founder, Swami Prahbupada (1896–1977), sent him to South America to spread word of the society there. He found his greatest success in Colombia.

In the year following Prabupada’s death, Swami Paramadvaiti developed an important relationship with Srila Sridhar Maharaja, a Vaisnava guru (and one of Prabhupada’s godbrothers) in India, and took his sannyas vows (a pledge to lead a renounced life) from him. Having broken with ISKCON in 1984, he founded both ISEV (Instituto Superior de Estudios Vedicos) and VRINDA (The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies). In Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Peru, he brought a variety of centers (ashrams, farms, cultural centers, and schools) into the new organization, which subsequently spread to countries in Central and North America and to Europe (Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Switzerland). There are missions in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States (Florida and Hawaii).

In 1990 VRINDA established its first center in India and later opened a world center in Vrinda Kunja. In Vrindavan VRINDA opened the first Gaudiya Vaisnava Bookstore, from which books and materials from all of the groups in the Krishna-consciousness tradition are distributed. VRINDA has committed itself to translating and publishing books in a variety of languages, especially German and Spanish.

VRINDA is a member of the World Vaisnava Association.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

VRINDA/The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies. www.vrindavan.org.

Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti. Our Family the Gaudiya Math. www.vrindavan.org/English/Books/GMconded.html.

———. “The Temple President.” www.vrindavan.org/bap/index.html.

World Community

Rte. 4, Box 265, Bedford, VA 24523

In 1970 Vasudevadas (also known as Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid) and his wife, Devaki-Ma, founded Prema Dharmasala as a yoga ashram for dedicated lay disciples and renunciates; they also founded the World Community as a community of householders and families who looked to Vasudevadas/Rashid as their spiritual teacher. Throughout the 1970s Prema Dharmasala functioned as the main training center for those who had made a commitment to a life of renunciation and service to God and the human family. In the early 1980s, however, a shift of emphasis to the World Community occurred as the leaders embraced a vision of the community as a symbol of the oneness of truth and the transforming power of divine love. By 1984 Prema Dharmasala had been completely superseded by the World Community.

Rashid is a pir (master or leader) of five Sufi orders: Mujaddidiyya, Naqshbandiyya, Chishtiyya, Qadriyya, and Shadiliyya. He introduces innovative learning methods and helps to integrate Islamic values into mainstream curricula.

The World Community will be located on the acreage previously occupied by the Prema Dharmasala. Centered on a large Temple of All Religions will be a series of interrelated villages, an educational center, a holistic health clinic, and a research and training center for the New Age. The outlines of the emerging plan have remained open to allow for new insight as members become more attuned to truth.

Membership

In 2002 the community reported 150 members.

Sources

World Community. www.circlegroup.org

Love Offerings at Thy Lotus Feet. Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala, 1975.

Vasudevadas. Running Out of Time and Who Is Watching? Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala Fellowship, 1979.

———. A Time for Eternity. Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala and Fellowship Association, 1976.

———. Vasudevadas Speaks to Your Heart. Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala and Fellowship Association, 1976.

World Community Service

3676 Delaware Dr., Fremont, CA 94538

The World Community Service was founded in 1911 in Madras, India, by Yogiraj Vethathiri Maharaj, a successful businessman and teacher of kundalini (an unconscious, instinctive, or erotic force) yoga. Vethathiri was born in southern India into a family of weavers. While still a child he placed himself under a spiritual teacher. Early in his development he rejected the impersonal monism taught by many forms of Hinduism and became a devotee of Vinayaka, a Hindu deity. His own reflections on his devotional activity led him to the conviction that God was without shape or form. At the age of eighteen, he moved to Madras to continue his education and, later, to start his own business manufacturing cloth.

After World War II Vethathiri met Swami Paranjothi, a teacher of kundalini yoga and founder of the Temple of Universal Peace in Madras. The practice of kundalini yoga brought together the religious speculations that had held much of his attention throughout his life. He soon discovered that he could project kundalini energy into others and thereby help them. In 1958 Vethathiri established the World Community Service in Madras. Three years later he moved the headquarters to his home town of Guduvancheri, whence it spread throughout India.

Vethathiri teaches simplified kundalini yoga (SKY), a process of arousing the kundalini latent in each individual; this force is often pictured as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine, waiting to uncoil and bring enlightenment. SKY claims to be able to bypass the laborious techniques traditionally considered integral to kundalini yoga and, through shaktipat (the act of a guru or spiritual teacher imparting a form of spiritual power or awakening on a disciple), arouse the kundalini and teach the student how to control the working of the energy, a process called shanti yoga. Once having mastered shanti yoga, the aspirant can have the kundalini fully aroused by Vethathiri through a process called turiya (a state of pure consciousness) yoga and experience a state of tranquility and bliss. Finally, the aspirant is led into a still higher state of consciousness, turiyateetha yoga, in which the individual consciousness is merged with the infinite.

Vethathiri made his first visit to the United States in 1972 at the invitation of the younger brother of the leader of the New Delhi World Community Service Centre. He resided in Bound Brook, New Jersey, where Vethathiri gave his first American lectures and organized the first American World Community Service Centre. The organization spread along the East Coast primarily through the Indian American community. Since the organization of the center, Vethathiri has made annual visits to the United States, and centers have been established across America and in other countries, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Membership

Not reported

Sources

World Community Service. www.vethathiri.org/Home.

Vethathiri, Yogiraj. Atomic Poison. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 2002.

———. Bio Magnetism. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 2003.

———. Physical Transformation of Soul. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 1982.

———. Sex and Spiritual Development. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 1982.

———. The Story of My Life. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 1982.

World Plan Executive Council-US

139 Waldemere Rd., Livingston Manor, NY 12758

The World Plan Executive Council is one of several organizations that claim they are not religious groups and hence should not be included in an encyclopedia of religion. Critics of the council and of the technique it teaches to those affiliated with Transcendental Meditation (TM) have argued forcefully that it is a religion; some go so far as to charge the council with hiding its religious nature in order to deceive the public and gain some benefits available only to nonreligious organizations in the West. Some of these critics took their case to court; in 1978 the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, ruled that the practice of TM was religious in nature and banned the teaching of TM in the public schools of New Jersey. Subsequently, the teaching of TM was dropped from other programs supported by public funds.

In response the World Plan Executive Council has argued that the 1978 court decision was a mistake; it draws attention to the extensive scientific research on the efficacy of TM that has been completed and published in reputable journals. It also argues that its basic theoretical base, the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI), was formulated as a scientific theory, not a religious teaching. It further notes the participation of people of many religions, even clergy, who not only practice TM but also teach it.

The argument between the council and its critics goes to the very heart of the discussion of the definition of religion in both the academic and legal uses of the term. TM emerged in the context of the growth of Eastern religious practice in the West. It is, in fact, impossible to tell the story of the rise of Hinduism in America without reference to TM, which helped to spur the initial wave of Indian teaching to come to America following World War II.

The founder of TM (or rather the modern rediscoverer) was Guru Dev (1870–1953), but its most influential exponent was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008), who spent 13 years in seclusion with Guru Dev and, upon Guru Dev’s death, came forth in 1958 to tell the world about TM. Prior to his life of meditation, he had obtained a B.S. in physics at Allahabad University. In 1959 he made his first world tour, which brought him to the United States. His movement grew slowly until the mid-1960s, when some popular entertainers (including the Beatles, Mia Farrow, and Jane Fonda) identified with it.

In 1972 Maharishi announced his world plan, the overall strategy that guides the movement and from which the council takes its name. The goal of the world plan is to share the science of creative intelligence with the whole world. The immediate objective of the plan is to establish 3,600 world-plan centers (one for each million people on earth) and to staff each center with 1,000 teachers (one for each thousand people on earth.) The ultimate goal is to bring the age of enlightenment.

To carry out its agenda, the World Plan Executive Council has organized into five task-oriented structures. The International Meditation Society is the main structure for introducing the general public to TM. The Spiritual Regeneration Movement works with the “older” generation (people older than thirty), whereas the Student International Meditation Society targets the campus population. Maharishi International University is a four-year university that offers both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, with instruction based on presenting traditional material with a TM perspective. The university is in Fairfield, Iowa. The American Foundation for the Science of Creative Intelligence is working within the business community.

In 1976 Maharishi created the World Government of the Age of Enlightenment, described as a nonpolitical global organization that “enjoys sovereignty in the domain of consciousness” and “activity in the eternally dynamic silence of the unified field of all of the forces of nature.” The World Government became an object of passing media attention in 1983, when Maharishi offered its services to the world’s governments to assist them in solving their problems.

The essence of TM is a form of japa yoga—meditation with a mantra, a sound constantly repeated silently during meditation and upon which the meditator concentrates. Each individual begins his process of meditation with initiation. At that time he is given an individual mantra for his/her own use; it is not to be revealed to others. The mantra is most often given by a certified TM instructor. The initiation ceremony, during which members repeat a number of “prayers” to Hindu deities and offer veneration to a long line of gurus, became a cornerstone of the case built by critics claiming TM is a religious practice.

The overall perspective of the council is spelled out in Maharishi’s book The Science of Being and the Art of Living, which presesnts a complete cosmology. According to Maharishi, underneath the universe is the absolute field of pure being, unmanifested and transcendental. Being is the ultimate reality of creation. The science of being teaches how to contact ultimate reality. TM is the tool. Once the meditation begins, one starts to “live the being,” and the council offers instruction on correct thinking, speaking, acting, and health. The goal is God-realization. Maharishi’s teaching is “the summation of the practical wisdom of the integrated life as advanced by the Vedic Rishis of ancient India.” That is to say, the ultimate goal of TM is to “achieve the spiritual goals of mankind in this generation.” At the time of his death in 2008, Maharishi had no legal affiliation to the World Plan Executive Council. He is looked upon as the founder of TM and the Science of Creative Intelligence. Through his books, taped lectures, and constant presence in picture and thought, his spirit still dominates the organization.

The council’s encouragement of widespread research and documentation of its effects have helped to impart credibility and popularity to TM. More than 500 research studies have been completed at universities and colleges in more than 25 nations. Many of these have been published in academic journals and later reprinted and circulated by the movement. Such studies document the role of the practice of TM in (among other things) curbing alcohol and drug abuse, assisting in the rehabilitation of criminals and delinquents, increasing productivity on the job, producing a more healthy body, improving athletic performance, and raising intelligence.

The growth of TM during the early 1970s was rapid, and widespread media coverage helped provide openings in the business world, the U.S. Army, and the school system. Growth began to slow in the mid-1970s and decreased rapidly following the 1978 court decision. That same year TM announced its siddha program, a course in advanced techniques that allowed the student to gain various super-normal capacities, including levitation, invisibility, mastery over nature, and fulfillment of all desires. The overall goal was the creation of the Age of Enlightenment. Although many signed up for the course, it aroused attacks from many who argued that it was impossible to produce the advertised results. In 1987 a former TM instructor sued the organization over the siddha claims and was granted a $138,000 judgment.

During the 1980s the council has continued to extend its programs into broader areas of life. In the late 1980s a major promotional program for Ayurvedic medicine was launched, and the Maharishi Center for Ayur-Veda opened in Fairfield, Iowa. The center’s directors have introduced “Maharishi Amrit Kalesh,” an herbal supplement. It is being marketed by Maharishi Ayurvedic Products International. The council has sponsored the establishment of the Natural Law Party, a political party active in the United States and several European countries. The Natural Law Party offers the council’s program to the electorate as an alternative to traditional political party platforms.

Membership

Not reported. By 2008 an estimated 6 million people had taken the basic TM course in the United States; many of those, however, are not continuing to practice TM. In 1978 the organization had more than 7,000 authorized teachers and 400 teaching centers. Researchers have noted that TM peaked in 1976, when it initiated 292,273 people. By the end of that year, however, it had begun a radical decline. In 1977 it initiated only 50,000.

Educational Facilities

Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa • Maharishi Open University • Maharishi University of Management • Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment • Maharishi Academy of Total Knowledge • Maharishi Spiritual University • and the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention.

Periodicals

MIU World. Send orders to 1000 N. 4th St., DB 1155, Fairfield, IA 52557-1155. • Modern Science and Vedic Science.

Sources

World Plan Executive Council—US. www.tm.org/resources.

Bainbridge, William Sims, and Daniel H. Jackson. “The Rise and Decline of Transcendental Meditation.” In The Future of Religion, eds. Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.

Bloomfield, Harold H., Michael Peter Cain, and Dennis T. Jaffe. TM: Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress. New York: Delacorte Press, 1975.

Carrey, Normand J., and Lynn A. Suess. TM and Cult Mania. North Quincy, MA: Christopher Publishing House, 1980.

Ebon, Martin, ed. Maharishi, the Guru. New York: New American Library, 1968.

Goldhaber, Nat. TM: An Alphabetical Guide to the Transcendental Meditation Program. New York: Ballantine Books, 1976.

Lewis, Gordon R. Transcendental Meditation. Glendale, CA: G/L Regal Books, 1975.

Jefferson, William. The Story of the Maharishi. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi. Life Supported by Natural Law. Washington, DC: Age of Enlightenment Press, 1986.

———. Love and God. N.p., Age of Enlightenment Press, 1973.

———. The Science of Being and Art of Living. London: International SRM Publications, 1966.

Orme-Johnson, David W., and John T. Farrows, eds. Scientific Research on the Transcendental Meditation Program: Collected Papers, I. Seelisberg, Switzerland: Maharishi European Research University Press, 1977.

Patton, John E. The Case Against TM in the Schools. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book ouse, 1976.

Roth, Robert. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. Maharishi University of Management Press, 1994.

Scott, R. D. Transcendental Misconceptions. San Diego, CA: Beta Books, 1978.

White, John. Everything You Want to Know About TM, Including How to Do It. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Yasodhara Ashram Society

Box 9, Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada V0B 1X0

The Yasodhara Ashram Society was founded by Swami Sivananda (1911–1995) (Sylvia Hellman, a German-born Canadian citizen). In her forties, while meditating, she saw the face of Swami Sivananda Saraswati in a vision. She traveled to India and was initiated as a sannyasin (renunciate) by Sivananda into the Saraswati (monastic) Order in 1956. At Sivananda’s direction she returned to Canada to update Eastern teachings for a Western audience. From 1956 to 1963, the ashram was in Vancouver but then was moved to Kootenay Bay, in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia.

Swami Radha expanded the teachings of yoga to include Western psychology and symbolism in order to create a bridge of understanding between East and West. Swami Radha introduced numerous practical techniques that aim to enhance daily living and expand consciousness. She is one of the foremost authorities on kundalini (an unconscious, instinctive, or erotic energy) yoga. The ashram offers courses on various aspects of yoga, retreat packages for groups and individuals, and a three-month, personal-growth intensive course each winter. The Temple of Divine Light Dedicated to All Religions was completed in 1992. Connected with the ashram is the Association for the Development of Human Potential, also founded by Swami Radha, and the ashram’s publishing arm, Timeless Books, both located in Spokane, Washington.

Membership

In 2002 the Ashram reported 108 members. There are also affiliated centers, called Radha Houses, across Canada and the United States, as well as in England.

Educational Facilities

Yasodhara Ashram Society Centre, Kootenay Bay, British Columbia, Canada.

Periodicals

Ascent.

Sources

Yasodhara Ashram Society. www.yasodhara.org.

Radha, Sivannada. Gods Who Walk the Rainbow. Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1981.

———. Hatha Yoga, Hidden Language. Port Hill, ID: Timeless Books, 1987.

———. Kundalini: Yoga for the West. Spokane, WA: Timeless Books, 1978.

———. Light and Vibration: Consciousness, Mysticism, and the Culmination of Yoga. Timeless Books. 176 pp.

———. Mantras: Words of Power. Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1980.

———. Radha: Diary of a Woman’s Search. Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1981.

Yoga House Ashram

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Yoga House Ashram was founded in the mid-1970s by Vimalananda (b. 1942), a former leader of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. Dadaji, as he is affectionately known to his followers, was born to a Brahmin family in Badwel, in the south of India. At the age of six, he had an intense initiation experience of divine light filling his room and a voice instructing him on the path of enlightenment. He began to pursue the inner life, and at the age of sixteen, he became an instructor of meditation. In 1962 he met Sri Anandamurti, the founder of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society, and was impressed with both his spirituality and his program of service to humanity, especially the sick, the elderly, and the poor. Anandamurti was equally impressed with his young disciple and quickly elevated him to the status of teacher of yoga. In 1966 Dadaji left India to spread Ananda Marga. He was responsible for starting centers in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. The government and the United Nations honored him for his efforts on behalf of the victims of the 1968 earthquake that struck Manila.

In 1969 Dadaji came to the United States and assisted in the spread of Ananda Marga. In the mid-1970s, however, he left Ananda Marga and founded the Yoga House Ashram. Since that time he has spent his time creating his own following in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Dadaji came to the United States with a strong desire to bridge the gap between East and West. He teaches a traditional yoga but has retained the emphasis on social action he found in Ananda Marga. He teaches his students to keep their role in society as they strive for God.

Membership

Not reported. The work of the Yoga House Ashram is confined to northern California, where Dadaji Vimalananda teaches yoga at a variety of locations in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

Sources

Vimalananda, Dadaji. Yogamritam (The Nectar of Yoga). San Rafael, CA: Yoga House Ashram, 1977.

Yoga in Daily Life

National Center, 2402 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, VA 22301

Yoga in Daily Life is the name of the organization and the system of yoga created by Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, affectionately known as Swamiji. As a youth in India, Swamiji met his teacher Paramhans Swami Madhavananda (generally referred to as “Holy Guruji”), under whom he gained self-realization when he was seventeen years old. In 1972 Swamiji moved to Europe to teach yoga. As he contemplated the pervasive problems faced by individuals struggling in the modern world, he developed the system he called Yoga in Daily Life, emphasizing the ancient yoga tradition recast to speak to modern civilization.

Yoga in Daily Life is built around a few basic principles: the building of physical, mental, and spiritual health; respect for life; tolerance for all religions, cultures, and nationalities; global peace; protection of human rights and values; and the protection of the environment and preservation of nature. The principles find expression in a variety of humanitarian projects sponsored and supported by Yoga in Daily Life, including several in Rajasthan, the area of India in which Swamiji was raised.

Membership

Not reported. There are centers in twenty-six countries worldwide; the American Association includes three centers, one each in Alexandria, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, and New York City.

Sources

American Association of Yoga in Daily Life. www.yoga-in-daily-life-usa.com/.

Maheshwarananda, Paramhans Swami. Meetings with a Yogi. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1994.

Maheshwarananda, Paramhans Swami. Yoga in Daily Life: The System. Korneuburg, Germany: Ueberreuther, 2000.

Yoga Research Foundation

6111 SW 74th Ave., Miami, FL 33143

Alternate Address

Indian headquarters: International Yoga Society, Lal Bagh, Loni–201 102, Ghaziabad, U.P., India.

Swami Jyotirmayananda (b. 1931) began his religious pilgrimage as an ascetic, emerged into teaching and editing, and became a leading figure at Swami Sivananda Saraswati’s Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. He came to the United States in 1962 and founded the Sanantan Dharma Mandir, with headquarters in Puerto Rico. The headquarters were moved to Miami under the present name in 1969. Jyotirmayananda teaches integral yoga. The foundation offers classes in yoga philosophy, ancient Hindu texts from India (the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, Puranas, Yoga Vasistha, Srimad Bhagavatam), hatha yoga, and meditation. He has developed a vast publishing program centered on his many books, cassettes, study courses, and monthly magazine.

Membership

In 1995 the foundation reported approximately 2,000 active members. There is one center in Miami and one near Delhi, India. The foundation considers the subscribers to the magazine and recipients of the International Yoga Guide to be members.

Periodicals

International Yoga Guide. • Integral Light.

Sources

Yoga Research Foundation. www.yrf.org.

Jyotir Maya Nanda, Swami. The Way to Liberation. Miami, FL: Swami Lalitananda, 1976.

———. Yoga Can Change Your Life. Miami, FL: International Yoga Society, 1975.

———. Yoga in Life. Miami, FL: Swami Jyotir Maya Nanada, 1973.

———. Yoga of Sex-Sublimation, Truth, and Nonviolence. Miami, FL: Swami Lalitananda, 1974.

———. Yoga Vasistha. Miami, FL: Yoga Research Society, 1977.

Dharma Mittra Yoga

297 3rd Ave. at 23rd St., New York, NY 10010

Yogi Gupta, born in Kanpur in the north of India, was a lawyer who left his profession to become a monk in the sannyasa (renunciate) order in Banaras. At that time he was renamed Swami Kailashananda and became a major teacher of yoga. He also founded the Kailashananda Mission at Rishikesh. Basic to Yogi Gutpa’s teaching is hatha yoga, with its various postures (asanas). Hatha is the entrance into various other disciplines, including psychic development, vegetarianism, and yogic philosophy. Proponents of this variant of yoga claim that it promotes self-mastery, self-fulfillment, success, and freedom. Yogi Gupta first came to the United States in 1954. He founded a center in 1974 in New York City. Shri Dharma Mittra, who studied under Swami Kailashananda, now runs the studio and yoga center; he speaks throughout the United States about yoga and philosophy.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Dharma Mittra Yoga. www.dharmayogacenter.com.

Gupta, Yogi. Shradha and Heavenly Fathers. New York: Yogi Gupta New York Center, n.d.

———. Yoga and Long Life. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1958.

———. Yoga and Yogic Powers. New York: Yogi Gupta New York Center, 1963.

Mittra, Dharma. Askanas. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2003.

Hinduism

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Hinduism

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Abhidhyan Yoga Institute

PO Box 1414
Nevada City, CA 95959-1414

The Abhidhyan Yoga Institute was founded in 1991 by Shri Acharya Abhidhyanananda Avahuta (Anatole Ruslanov) to prepare interested persons for what is termed Abhidhyan Yoga or All-Embracing Yoga, a form of tantric yoga which has survived through the centuries only in a few obscure Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions.

Shri Acharya Abhidhyanananda Avahuta completed a period of monastic training in Varanasi, India, with Shri Anandamurti (1921–1990), founder of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. Following his monastic training he continued his study with Anandamurti and eventually became a spiritual teacher and a bearer of the lineage. Following his master's death, he founded his own teaching work. New students are expected to start a regular personal practice of meditation and asanas (postures), adhere to a set of moral principles, and find a competent trustworthy teacher to follow.

Membership: Not reported. There are members in seven countries.

Periodicals: The Tantrik Path.

Sources:

http://www.abhidhyan.org/contact.html/.

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Adidam

12040 N. Seigler Spring Rd.
Middletown, CA 95461

Adidam, formerly known as Free Daist Communion, was founded in 1972 by Franklin Jones. In 1960, after "a crisis of despair," he began a period of introspection that led him to study with Swami Rudrananda, an American disciple of Swami Muktananda. At Rudrananda's suggestion, he studies for a time in a Lutheran seminary. In 1968, he traveled to India to meet Muktananda. At Muktananda's ashram, he had his first adult experience of total absorption in the Transcendental Consciousness. Later he was guided in the subtle form by Muktananda's guru, Swami Nityananda, and finally by the female personification of Divine Energy (Shakti).

On September 10, 1970, he entered what he has termed the permanent and unconditional state of Sahaj Samadhi, or "Open Eyes," which is coessential with the Divine Being-Consciousness itself. This is the condition that, according to his own confession, he consciously relinquished in his earliest years, and that he had been moved to recover throughout his life. Soon after this experience, he began to teach in order to transmit the God-realization he had attained. In 1973 he changed his name to "Bubba Free John"–"Bubba" denoting brother–and changed his method of teaching. He involved his students in the realms of experience that human beings are typically drawn to, including sexuality, the pursuit of material pleasure, and indulgence in spiritual and psychic phenomena. This method was aimed at showing the futility of seeking for any form of experience, as well as developing his recommendations for life-practice.

In 1979, Bubba Free John entered a new phase of work and adopted the name "Da Free John"–"Da" signifying "giver." During this phase, he instructed his students in forms of sacramental worship and the relationship to him as spiritual master rather than "brother." In 1986, his active teaching work came to an end, and he became known as Heart-Master Da Love-Ananda, or more formally Avadhoota Da Love-Ananda Hridayam. While he has continued to give instruction since 1986, he has been concentrating on the transmission of his "Divine Condition."

He is now referred to as Avatar Adi Da Samraj. As Avatar Adi Da's work has grown and changed, so has the name of the body of practitioners from Shree Hridayam Satsang to Dawn Horse Communion to Free Primitive Church of Divine Communion to Free Daist Communion, and most recently to Adidam.

The teachings of Avatar Adi Da have been termed, among other things, the "Way of Radical Understanding." The foundation of this way is the relinquishment of the illusion of separateness of an individual existence, on the basis of the understanding that the apparent separateness is fundamentally an "activity" rather than a fixed "entity." There is only the all-comprehensive Reality, Being-Consciousness-Bliss. This native condition of existence becomes obvious when all seeking and all activity of separation cannot be transcended, i.e., when "radical understanding" prevails. Enlightenment, thus, already exists: it cannot be attained by any strategy of individual effort. It must, however, be realized. To unlock the activity of seeking and separation is understood to be a matter of Grace and Revelation from Avatar Adi Da Samraj. Thus, the essence of his way is the devotional and spiritual relationship to him as spiritual master rather than any technique that one could apply to oneself.

Avatar Adi Da has created a definitive summary of his 30 years of teaching in a series of 23 books, which are known as his "source-texts." One tool Avatar Adi Da has given to understand the mass of other spiritual teachings and the progressive courses of realization is the seven stages of life. Stage one begins at birth and focuses upon physical adaptation to the world. Stage two, beginning around age seven, focuses upon socialization and emotional adaption to the world. The third stage is a period of development of the mind, will, and emotional-sexual functions. The fourth stage marks the beginning of spiritual awakening. The fifth stage relates to the mystical inner search and the possibilities of subtle spiritual experience. The sixth stage is the profound state of abiding as Consciousness itself, but on the basis of excluding the awareness of the body, the mind, and the world. The seventh stage is what Avatar Adi Da calls "Divine Enlightenment." It is the culmination of the entire spiritual process, in which the realizer exists entirely and permanently as "Love-Bliss-Consciousness," regardless of whether any form of experience arises or not. Avatar Adi Da is recognized by his devotees as "the all-compelling and final" manifestation of the Divine in human form. Thus, it is understood that the realization of the seventh stage of life is only possible for those who enter into a formal devotional relationship with him.

The Internet address of Adidam is http://www.adidam.org.

Membership: In 2002 there were approximately 1,200 members in the United States, 60 members in Canada, and more than 400 overseas. Some members now live at the resident retreat center in the Fiji Islands. Foreign centers are located in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Sources:

Avatar Ad. Da Samraj and the First 25 years of His Divine Revelation Work. Middletown, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1997.

Bubba Free John. [Franklin Jones]. No Remedy. Lower Lake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1976.

Da Free John. [Franklin Jones]. The Dawn Horse Testament. San Rafael, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1985.

Da Love-Ananda. The Holy Jumping-Off Place. San Rafael, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1986.

Feuerstein, Georg, ed. Humor Suddenly Returns. Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1984.

Jones, Franklin. The Method of the Siddhas. Los Angeles: Dawn Horse Press, 1973.

The Next Option. Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1984.

See the Brightness Face to Face: A Celebration of the Ruchira Buddha. Middletown, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1997.

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Advaita Fellowship

221-B Indianapolis St.
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

The Advaita Fellowship was founded following Ramesh S. Balsekar's 1987 visit to the United States. Balsekar is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981). Nisargadatta was a guru in a lineage which began with Saint Jnaneshwara, who lived in Maharashtra, India, in the thirteenth century and passed on a practice of jnana yoga, the philosophical approach to spiritual enlightenment through advaita vedanta (the belief in nonduality). Sri Nisargadatta was a popular teacher known for his ability to speak about profound thought so all could understand. He rarely gave lectures, but generally taught by holding conversations with those around him.

Ramesh S. Balsekar was a graduate of London University who became a successful banker. He retired in 1970 and about the same time met Sri Nisargadatta. He became a close disciple and began to keep a record of his conversations, later the subject of several books. Meanwhile several Westerners came to know of Sri Nisargadatta and began to spread his teachings in Europe and America. Maurice Frydman transcribed and published the first book of his teachings, I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and in 1982 Peter Brent wrote of him in Godmen of India. Jean Dunn, noting the relationship between Nisargadatta's teachings and those of Ramana Maharshi, published articles about Nisargadatta in The Mountain Path, the magazine from Maharshi's ashram (religious community). Dunn later edited the first books on Maharaj published in America.

In the years since Maharaj's death, Balsekar has been active in spreading the teachings of advaita vedanta, and has traveled to the United States annually since his first visit in 1987. Advaita teaches that suffering comes from the mistaken idea that we are separate entities. It emphazizes that, in fact, the human soul (Atman) and the universal soul (Brahman) are one and the same. In the realization of that simple truth ignorance and suffering are dispelled.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Balsekar, Ramesh S. Experiencing the Teachings. Redondo Beach, CA: Advaita Press, 1988.

——. From Consciousness to Consciousness. Redondo Beach, CA: Advaita Press, 1989.

Brent, Peter. The Godmen of India. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1972.

"I Am That." Hinduism Today 11, no. 3 (March 1989): 1, 5.

Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri. The Blissful Life. Comp. by Robert Powell. Durham, NC: Acorn Press, 1984..

——. I Am That. Durham, NC: Acorn Press, 1983.

——. Prior to Consciousness. Edited by Jean Dunn. Durham, NC: Acorn Press, 1985.

——. Seeds of Consciousness. Edited by Jean Dunn. New York: Grove Press, 1982.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Presentation Volume: 1980. Bombay, India: Sri Nisargadatta Adhyatma Kendra, 1980.

2178

Ajapa Yoga Foundation

℅ Shri Janardan Ajapa Yoga Ashram
Box 1731
Placerville, CA 95667

Ajapa yoga is a simple meditation and breathing technique believed by its practitioners to be the most ancient form of yoga, developed thousands of years ago by the rishis (seers) of India. Thus it is believed to be the original yoga, not a composite, abbreviation, or updated version of the forms of yoga. Ajapa yoga was rediscovered and given to the modern world by Guru Purnananda Paramahansa. He learned of the practice from Matang Rishi in a hidden monastery in Tibet. He created three ashrams in Bengal to spread the teachings which, while very old, had not been widely available until the last half of the nineteenth century. The work begun by Purnananda was continued by his disciple Guru Bhumananda Paramahansa who in turn passed the succession to Guru Janardan Paramahansa (b. 1888). Guru Janardan organized the World Conference on Scientific Yoga in New Delhi, which brought him into contact with many westerners. Following the conference he accepted an invitation to lecture in Czechoslovakia and expanded his western tour to include Germany, Canada, and the United States. After being in the West for over a year, he returned to India.

Some of the westerners he encountered upon his tour traveled to India in 1973. In 1974, upon their return to New York, they incorporated the Ajapa Yoga Foundation. Guru Janardan made visits in 1974, 1975, and 1976 establishing centers in Hamburg, Germany; Montreal, Quebec; Los Angeles; Baltimore; Atlanta; and Knoxville, Tennessee. A periodical was begun in 1976, and a book summarizing the teachings was published. From that modest beginning the foundation has steadily grown.

On January 6, 1966, Guru Janardan Paramahansa found a baby boy by the banks of the Ganges River, and named him Guru Prasad. He predicted that Guru Prasad would be a self-realized saint who would have a large role in helping suffering humanity. He trained him from birth for this purpose, and in 1980, Guru Prasad became the only living master of ajapa yoga. According to Guru Prasad, "A person has but to practice this technique and everything will be answered, naturally and automatically."

According to the foundation's teachings, humans have lost their true identities and are left in a world of pain, want, and illusion. True identity can be gained by the practice of ajapa yoga beginning with the meditation on the mantra given by the guru at the time of initiation, accompanied by specific breathing techniques.

Membership: In 1997 the foundation reported 500 members in three centers in the United States and 100 members in one center in Canada. Affiliated centers are also found in India, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Japan. There were approximately 10,000 members worldwide.

Periodicals: The Ajapa Journal.

Sources:

Tattwa Katha: A Tale of Truth. New York: Ajapa Yoga Foundation, 1976.

2179

American Meditation Society

2912 N. Main St., #2
Flagstaff, AZ 62025

The American Meditation Society is the United States affiliate of the International Foundation for Spiritual Unfoldment founded in 1975 in Capetown, South Africa, by Purushottan Narshinhran (b.1932), whom his followers know by his spiritual name, Gururaj Ananda Yogi. As a child in his native Gujurat, he showed a distinct focus upon spiritual realities. When he was five years old he ran away from home to visit the temples in the neighborhood. When he was found, he explained to his parents that he had visited many temples, but had found to his frustration that "the Gods were lifeless and would not speak to me." His continued search for the Divine culminated when he discovered that what he sought lay within himself. Having found the inner reality and having fully and permanently entered the self-realized state, he set himself to the task of becoming a spiritual teacher in the West.

He moved to South Africa and became a successful businessman. In 1975, following a problem with his heart, he retired from business and turned to full-time work as a spiritual teacher. He founded the International Foundation for Spiritual Unfoldment. Within the first year it had spread to nine countries, in the British Commonwealth and throughout Europe. In 1977 it was organized in California as the American Meditation Society.

Gururaj Ananda Yogi teaches not a religion, but the basis which underlies all religions. His task is seen as merely to awaken the individual to the same reality that he discovered and to lead him or her along the path of unfoldment. Meditation is the individual's major tool in turning inward, and it works best if individualized. The society offers basic meditation courses which introduce the variety of ways to meditate. Gururaj assists in the process of individualizing sound which is intoned during meditation. Individuals send their pictures to Gururaj. He meditates upon the picture and hears the sound each person makes with the universe. He presents the distinct sound to each person as a unique personal mantrum.

Membership: Not reported. In 1984 the society had approximately 2,000 members in 30 centers. Internationally, the foundation had centers in Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Great Britain, and South Africa.

Periodicals: American Meditation Society Newsletter.

Sources:

Ananda Yogi, Gururaj. From Darkness to Light. Farmingdale, NY: Coleman Publishing, 1987.

Partridge, Ted. Jewels of Silence. Farmborough, Hamps.: St. Michael's Abbey Press, 1981.

Taylor, Savita. The Path to Unfoldment. London: VSM Publications, 1979.

2180

American Vegan Society

56 Dinshah Ln.
PO Box 369
Malaga, NJ 08328-0908

The American Vegan Society was founded in 1960 at Malaga, New Jersey, by H. Jay Dinshah. The basis of the society is Ahimsa, defined as "Dynamic Harmlessness." The six pillars of Ahimsa (one for each letter) are Abstinence from all animal products, particularly for food or clothing; Harmlessness and Reverence for life; Integrity of thought, word, and deed; Mastery over oneself; Service to humanity, nature, and creation; and Advancement of understanding and truth. Veganism is conceived as an advanced and comprehensive program for living and draws its inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, and other sages. Vegans are vegetarians and ecology-oriented.

Headquarters for the society are at Suncrest, run as a teaching center, at Malaga. An annual convention is held. The society is affiliated with the North American Vegetarian Society, headquartered at Dolgeville, New York, and the International Vegetarian Union, in England.

Membership: The society reported a membership of more than 1,000 in 2002.

Periodicals: American Vegan.

Sources:

Dinshah, Freya. The Vegan Kitchen. Malaga, NJ: American Vegan Society, 1970.

Ghadiali, Dinshah P. Gems in the Bible. Malaga, NJ: Dinshah Publishing Company, 1952.

The Life of a Karma-Yogi. Malaga, NJ: American Vegan Society, 1973.

2181

American Yoga Society

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The American Yoga Society was founded in 1971 as the Light of Yoga Society by Alice Christensen. Christensen began her spiritual quest in 1953 when she had a visionary experience in which she was engulfed with a white light. She subsequently learned of Swami Sivananda Sivananda (1887–1963), the head of the Divine Life Society in India, and corresponded with him for many years. In 1964, the year after Sivananda's death, she traveled to India and met Swami Rama of Hardwar, India (1900–1972) and became his student. Swami Rama (not to be confused with the person of the same name who founded the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy) had spent three years as a recluse in the Himalayas before settling in Hardwar as a teacher of yoga.

As Swami Rama's representative in the West, Christensen began to teach yoga in 1965 and six years later founded the Light of Yoga Society in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. At the time of Swami Rama's death in 1972, there were some eleven yoga centers in India, Australia and the United States that he guided. The name American Yoga Society was adopted in 1982. More recently headquarters were transferred to Florida.

Swami Rama developed a simplified form of the wisdom of the vedanta, and a form of hatha yoga especially for western practitioners. Members of the society practice both hatha and meditation daily. They also consume a vegetarian diet, practice ahimsa (nonviolence), avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, and are restrained in their use of sex.

Membership: Not reported. There are two centers in the United States and two affiliated centers in India.

Sources:

Christensen, Alice, and David Rankin. The Light of Yoga Society Beginner's Manual. Cleveland Heights, OH: Om Ram Productions, 1972. Rev. ed.: Alice Christensen. The American Yoga Association Beginner's Manual. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

2182

Amrita Foundation

PO Box 190978
Dallas, TX 75219-0978

The Amrita Foundation is an independent organization founded in the 1970s and based upon the teachings of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda. The organization emphasizes the original nature of the material it uses, especially the original Praecepta Lessons (instructions by the teacher), the home study course through which the foundation presents Yogananda's teachings. The lessons detail the instructions for the practice of kriya yoga, including the practice of meditation, concentration, and physical exercises. It also includes teachings on diet and nutrition. Lessons are sent to students on a month-by-month basis. The Foundation has reprinted the first edition of many of Yogananda's books, such as Whispers from Eternity, Songs of the Soul, and The Second Coming of Christ (two volumes). The organization's web site is located at http://www.connect.net/prisi.

Membership: Not reported.

2183

Ananda

14618 Tyler Foote Rd.
Nevada City, CA 95959

Ananda Church of Self-Realization and Ananda World Brotherhood Village were founded by Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters). Both institutions are based on the spiritual principles set forth by yoga master, Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual book, Autobiography of a Yogi.

Born of American parents in Rumania in 1926, Kriyananda was educated in Rumania, Switzerland, England, and the United States. At the age of 22, he became a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda and lived with him until the master's death in 1952. As a minister and director of center activities for the organization which Yogananda founded, Self-Realization Fellowship, and later as vice-president of SRF, he traveled and taught extensively in many countries. In 1962, he says God called him to serve his guru's mission in another capacity. He was separated from Self-Realization Fellowship to explore and expound through writing, teaching, and lecturing the implications of Yogananda's message for active yoga students and laypersons.

In 1968, Kriyananda founded Ananda Village near Nevada City, California, in response to inner guidance and to the "oftuttered public plea" of Paramhansa Yogananda: "Cover the earth with world-brotherhood colonies, demonstrating that simplicity of living plus high thinking lead to the greatest happiness."

Kriyananda has published more than forty books, including The Path: A Spiritual Autobiography; Rays of the Same Light; and The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda. He has also composed musical works including Christ Lives, an oratorio; Shakespeare Quartet, composed for two violins, viola, and cello; Egyptian Suite, written for harp, flute, and viola; and The Divine Romance, a piano sonata.

Ananda Village is situated at 2,600-foot elevation and on 750 acres of wooded and meadow land in the Sierra foothills of northern California. Members support themselves through a variety of businesses, some of which are privately owned and some owned and operated by the community. Children are educated, from pre-school through junior high, at the Ananda Education-for-Life School located within the village. High school students attend public school in Nevada City. The community and its branches includes approximately 600 people from many cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. About 25 nationalities are represented among the residents. A village council is elected annually by Ananda members. The Expanding Light is Ananda's guest facility, open year-round, offering personal retreats, week-long and four week-long training courses, and special events and holiday programs.

Ananda members practice regular daily meditation using the techniques of Kriya Yoga, as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda. Resident members are all disciples of Yogananda. The group is also directly involved in a worldwide outreach to those interested in the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda and his line of gurus.

Ananda's church, established in 1990 in congregational form, has 2,000 members. The goal of the Ananda Church of Self-Realization is to provide fellowship and inspiration for those who want to find God through serving him in others, and through the practice of ancient Raja Yoga techniques for self-realization that were brought to the West by Paramhansa Yogananda. The church is open for membership for those who follow the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Membership: In 1997 there were 2,000 church members of Ananda worldwide; 350 people, including children, reside at the main community in Nevada City. Ananda Church has 150 ordained ministers, who serve in Ananda churches at home and abroad. Currently Ananda has five branch communities located in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento and Palo Alto, California; and Assisi, Italy. In addition to these residential communties, there are 50 centers and meditation groups throughout the world.

Periodicals: Clarity Newsletter.

Sources:

Kriyananda, Swami [Donald Walters]. Cooperative Communities, How to Start Them and Why. Nevada City, CA: Ananda Publications, 1968.

——. Crises in Modern Thought. Nevada City, CA: Ananda Publications, 1972.

——. The Path. Nevada City, CA: Ananda Publications, 1977.

Nordquist, Ted A. Ananda Cooperative Village. Upsala, Sweden: Borgstroms Tryckeri Ab, 1978.

Walters, J. Donald. Cities of Light. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity, Publishers, 1987.

——. A Place Called Ananda. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publishers, 1996. 2001.

2184

Ananda Ashrama

13 Sapphire Rd.
Monroe, NY 10950

Formerly known as the Intercosmic Center of Spiritual Associations (ICSA) and the International Center for Self-Analysis. The Ashram was founded by Shri Brahamananda Sarasvati (d. 1993), also known as Dr. Rammurti Sriram Mishra, a student of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. As a young yogi, Sarasvati was able to detach his consciousness from the transient world and experience transcendental reality. Upon returning to his physical body, he posed the question "Who am I?" The question was answered through a technique of self-analysis. The ashram seeks to help its adherents through a similar technique of analysis. Its stated goals are 1) to experience one's self as the cosmic center of vibrations;2) to establish unity of all beings, especially all nations; 3) to promote global togetherness; 4) to promote a natural way of education, self-discipline and relations; 5) to promote the teaching of sanskrit; 6) to establish modern educational centers; 7) to promote natural, spiritual and psychological methods of healing; 8) to experience automatic and spontaneous psychosynthesis and psychoanalysis; and 9) to assist the individual in realizing the God-hood that always resides within.

The organization's web site can be found at http://www.anandaashram.org.

Membership: Not reported. In the United States the main centers are the Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York; the Rochester Ashram; and the New York City yoga center (all sponsored by the Yoga Society of New York) and the Brahmananda Ashram, the teaching center of the Yoga Society of San Francisco in California.

Periodicals: I Am News.

Sources:

Coble, Margaret. Self-Abidance. Port Louis, Mauritius: Standard Printing Establishment, 1973.

Mishra, Rammurti. Dynamics of Yoga Mudras and Five Suggestions for Meditation. Pleasant Valley, NY: Kriya Press, 1967.

——. Fundamentals of Yoga. New York: Lancer Books, 1969.

——. Self Analysis and Self Knowledge. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1978.

Mishra, Rammurti S. Isha Upanishad. Dayton, OH: Yoga Society of Dayton, 1962.

2185

Ananda Marga Yoga Society

97-38 42nd Ave., 1-F
Corona, NY 11368

The Ananda Marga Yoga Society was founded in 1955 in Bihar India, by Prabhat Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (b. 1921). From his early childhood in India, Sarkar attracted thousands of people by his deep love for humanity and by guiding them along the path of self-realization. Adjusting the ancient science of tantra yoga to meet the needs of the present, he developed a scientific and rational spiritual philosophy along with a system of practical disciplines for physical, mental, and spiritual development. Sarkar's path of tantra yoga begins with initiation, wherein the spiritual aspirant is privately taught the practice of meditation, and is given a two-syllable word or mantra along with a point of concentration, which are particular for that aspirant. In addition, the aspirant is taught the ancient moral codes of yama and niyama and introduced to the pratika, an ancient tantric emblem whose upward and downward triangles represent internal self-realization and external service to humanity. Recognizing him as a spiritually realized master, his followers called him "Shrii Shrii Anandamurtii," which means "He who attracts others as the embodiment of bliss," or simply "Baba" (father). The society reports that those who followed his teachings found their lives transformed as they overcame the weaknesses and negative tendencies of the mind and experienced a deep peace and bliss within. Inspired by his example, they turned their energies to serving the society and elevating the oppressed and impoverished humanity.

In the 1960s Sarkar began training missionary monks and nuns to spread his teachings of "self-realization and service to humanity" all over India and later throughout the world. Reflecting the broadness of his vision, Ananda Marga has become a multifaceted organization with various branches, all dedicated to the upliftment of humanity through education, relief, welfare, the arts, ecology, intellectual renaissance, women=s liberation, and a humanistic economy.

For the collective welfare of the entire society, Sarkar propounded a new economic theory that he named PROUT (Progressive Utilization Theory). PROUT states that no individual should be allowed to accumulate any physical wealth without the clear permission of the collective body. The theory also stands for the maximum utilization and rational distribution of all the resources and potentialities of the world (physical, mental, and spiritual), and the creation of a new, humanistic social order of harmony and justice for all.

In 1971, Sarkar was accused by a former follower of having conspired to murder some ex-members. Based upon his testimony, Sarkar was arrested and jailed awaiting trial. His imprisonment lasted through the national emergency proclaimed by Indira Ghandi in 1975. Ananda Marga was one of the organizations she banned nationally. Meanwhile Ananda Margis had been involved in a number of violent incidents, some aimed at protesting Sarkar's imprisonment. Sarkar was finally brought to trial, under the conditions of the emergency, and convicted. He was unable to call any witnesses on his behalf. He was finally retried in 1978 and found not guilty. Thereafter he guided the rapid expansion of Ananda Marga worldwide until his death in 1990.

Ananda Marga is now established in more than 60 countries, and together with PROUT has become a force for global social change. Sarkar further created the concept of Neo-Humanism, which means that all created beings are the veritable expressions of the Supreme Consciousness. This concept will vibrate human sentiment in all directions, will touch the innermost recesses of the heart, and lead everyone to the final stage of supreme blessedness. Neo-humanism will elevate human beings to universalism, which is the cult of love for all created beings of this universe.

On the practical level, Sarkar founded many branches of Ananda Marga, including ERAWS (Education, Relief, and Welfare Society), responsible for creating hundreds of primary and secondary schools worldwide; AMURT (Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team), registered as a United Nations Nongovernmental Organization, which carries out disaster relief work, conducts medical camps, and organizes food and shelter for victims of natural calamities, and RU (Renaissance Universal), dedicated to uplifting the downtrodden through the intellectual study of societal problems along with their solutions. Greater details and information about Ananda Marga is available on the Internet at http://www.anandamarga.org; expanded information about PROUT is available at http://www.prout.org.

Membership: In 2002 the society reported 5,000 members in the United States and two million worldwide.

Educational Facilities: Ananda Marga Gurukul (University), Ananda Nagar, West Purulia, Bengal, India.

Periodicals: Crimson Dawn. • New Renaissance.

Remarks: Acharya Vimalananda, who founded Ananda Marag in the United States, left the organization to found the Yoga House Ashram.

Sources:

Tadbhavananda Avadhuta, Acharya. Glimpses of Prout Philosophy. Copenhagen, Denmark: Central Proutist Publications, 1981.

Anandamurti, Shrii Shrii. Baba's Grace. Denver, CO: Amrit Publications, 1973.

——. The Great Universe: Discourses on Society. Los Altos Hills, CA: Ananda Marga Publications, 1973.

Nandita and Devadatta. Path of Bliss, Ananda Marga Yoga. Wichita, KS: Ananda Marga Publishers, 1971.

The Spiritual Philosophy of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. Denver, CO: Ananda Marga Publications, 1981.

Sarkar, P. R. Idea and Ideology. Calcutta: Acarya Pranavananda Avadhuta, 1978.

2186

Anasuya Foundation

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Sri Punitachariji, Girnar Sadhana Ashram, Bhavnath Taleti, Junagadh, Gujarat, India 362004.

The Anasuya Foundation dates to the 1975 experience of Indian teacher Swami Punitachariji (also called "Bapu") with Lord Dattatreya. The encounter occurred at Mount Girnar, a place sacred to Dattatreya in the Himalayan Mountains. Lord Dattatreya, one of the Hindu deities, is described as the divine essence behind all wisdom, all aspects of god combined. He is Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. He is usually pictured as a being with three heads and six arms with a minimal amount of clothing. He is satguru, and as such is capable of transmitting to others the power to understand life.

Prior to his encounter with Lord Dattatreya, Bapu had no physical guru, but had been a spiritual seeker wandering the forests and river banks for many years. He saw Lord Datta sitting on a rock being showered with flowers by saints and sages of past generations. He was chanting a mantra, "Hari Om Tatsat Jai Guru Datta." He gave this mantra to Bapu for the uplift of humankind.

It is the belief taught by Bapu that God created the world through sound. For every physical sound there is an equivalent sound on the subtle planes of creation. Thus by repeating certain charged sounds the creative plane is affected and those effects return to the physical plane and recreate it. Chanting the mantra of Lord Dattatreya brings his essence to the person doing the chanting and allows development without the need of an earthly guru.

Toward the end of the 1970s, the message of Bapu was brought to the West by Shantibaba, an early disciple. Centers were soon established in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Membership: Not reported. Centers are located in California, New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Germany, and England.

Sources:

Matulay, Emily, and Shantibaba. Spontaneous Meditation. Basalt, CO: Anasuya Publications, 1983. 43 pp.

2187

Anoopam Mission

7228 Rte. 715
Stroudsburg, PA 18360

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Brahmajyoti, Yogiji Marg, Mogri-388 345 (Via Anand), Gujarat, India.

The Anoopam Mission was founded in 1965 as an independent branch of the Swaminarayan movement, a nineteenth-century Hindu movement most successful in the state of Gujarat. The Swaminarayan movement was founded by Shree Sahajanand Swami, popularly known as Swaminarayan (1781–1830). He championed the idea of theistic worship in opposition to the popular Vedanta idea of an impersonal divine reality. God manifests on earth through his incarnations and his saints. The proper response of the believer is devotional service (bhakti yoga). Swaminarayan declared himself to be the early manifestation of Lord Swami Narayan, the Supreme Being, and is so considered by his followers to this day. Swaminarayan was succeeded by a series of leaders who served as high priest. In the mid-twentieth century, the High Priest was His Supreme Divine Holiness Yogiji Maharaj (d. 1971), who first organized the followers of the movement in the United States in 1970.

The Anoopam Mission was founded by a young man named Jashbhai, born in Sokhada, Gujarat, in 1940. As a college student he met Yogiji Maharaj, who called him by a term of endearment, "Saheb," the name by which he has since been known. He began to hold meetings among his fellow students. He began to raise up a new order of dedicated young men who were commissioned to become holy men, sadhus, but without taking the traditional dress and vows of the sanyassin, the renounced life. They did not wear the saffron robe nor adopt a life of begging. Instead, they continued their education and afterwards worked at a job. They attempted to integrate their spiritual and secular life and to live a life of service.

Saheb's break with the larger movement came in 1965. Differences had arisen in the Swaminarayan movement over, among other issues, the place of women in the movement. The conservative leaders in the movement did not want to allow women to take the sannyas vows, and being in control, they excommunicated those who supported the women. Saheb and his followers were believed to be in the liberal camp and were asked to leave. Saheb reorganized with the sadhus of the order supplying the leadership. Saheb eventually settled at Mogri, Gujarat, and there the international headquarters of the movement, Brahmajyoti, has been constructed. Other centers were founded throughout Gujarat and adjacent states, and the movement supports a number of educational institutions and medical facilities.

Followers of the Anoopam Mission began to migrate to the United States in the late 1960s, and Saheb made his first visit to the West in 1973. He has regularly visited Europe and America since.

Membership: Not reported. As of the early 1990s there were three centers in the United States, one each in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. The majority of members were recent immigrants from Gujarat. There is also one center in Denham, Uxbridge, England.

Sources:

Saheb–Profile of a Guru and His Mission. Uxbridge, UK: Anoopam Mission, 1989.

2188

Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhal

℅ Shri Shyamanath
PO Box 1425, Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163

Alternate Address: Shambhala Nath, PO Box 661182, Los Angeles, CA 90066.

The Adinath Sampradaya is a tantric sect of yogis affiliated with the greater Natha tradition founded by Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, two teachers credited with great magical powers. Matsyendranath (a.k.a. Macchagnanath) (c. 900 C.E.) is connected to the foundation of the Kaula school of tantra and the worship (puja) of the Goddess Kali. Gorakhnath (a.k.a. Gorakshanatha), the disciple of Matsyendranath, is credited with the foundation of laya or kundalini yoga and hatha yoga, and is revered by many of the Natha subsects as their founder.

Mahendranath (a.k.a. Dadaji) (1911–1992), the 23rd Adiguru (chief teacher) of the Adinathas, was born and grew up in London, where in his 20s he met magical teacher Aleister Crowley. After World War II, he traveled to his ancestral home and in Bombay he met his guru in the Natha tradition and initiated as a sadhu (holy man). For the next 30 years Dadaji wandered Southeast Asia as a penniless renunciate. In 1978 Dadaji initiated Lokanath Maharaj into the Adinath Sampradaya (sect), and he returned to England and initiated several people as Adinathas. He also founded AMOOKOS, or the Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhala, in 1982.

Dadaji had come to London in 1981, during which time he oversaw the writing of some papers by Lokanath for an organization that would act as a training ground for would-be magicians. These papers became the basis for AMOOKOS. Subsequently some of the papers were published, and over the next few years, international membership of AMOOKOS grew to over 200 individuals, several of whom started chartered lodges. One prominent member of AMOOKOS is Donald Michael Kraig, who ran a lodge in California in the 1980s.

The original material was presented to individuals for training purposes. Much of the material was and is tantric but presented in the English language for clarity and to avoid Indian words and jargon. Every individual who was initiated also became an initiate of the Adinath sect.

The Adinathas seek ultimate truth. They teach that a human being is already accomplished, a yogi or yogini. Conditioning and other factors prevent this yogic self from shining forth. In each individual, Shiva and Shakti coexist in equipoise. When they unite, the resulting bliss lights up the physio-psychological complex which is the Universe.

Much of the alchemy the Nathas used was based on the proposition that Breath is Time. According to the Nathas, a human being breathes 21,600 times during a 24-hour day. Half of these breaths are Sun (Shiva) breaths and half are Moon (Shakti) breaths. The out-breathing is Ha and the in-breathing, Sa. This is the so-called involuntary mantra Hamsah. One who has united the Solar and Lunar breaths is a Parama-hamsa (beyond Hamsa). The Natha aims to fight conditioning and to become free from Time.

A second aim is svecchacharya or acting according to one's own will; in other words, independently. The secret teachings of the Adinathas also included teachings from the left-hand path (in which symbolism is actualized in physical acts) and described in some detail the use of sexuality in the process of seeking truth.

AMOOKOS is in the process of publishing much of Dadaji's and Lokanath's writings through Azoth Publishing. Also, from 1977 to 1985, Mike Magee published Azoth Magazine on behalf of the group. There is also a vast literature now available on the history of the Adinathas and the related Indian tantric groups.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Dadaji. The Amoral Way of Wizardry. Stockholm: Tryckt I Sverige, 1992.

MacGee, Mike. Rituals of Kalika. New York: Azoth Publishing, 1985.

——. Tantrik Astrology. Oxford: Mandrake, 1989.

2189

Arsha Vidya Pitham

PO Box 1059
Saylorsburg, PA 18353

Arsha Vidya Pitham was founded in the mid-1980s by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Saraswati emerged in the 1970s as a leading disciple of Swami Chinmayananda and by the early 1980s was the heir apparent of the growing mission. Saraswati became the resident teacher at Sandeepany West, Chinmayananda's center in northern California. While associated with Chinmayananda, Saraswati taught several 30-month resident courses in Vedanta and Sanskrit. The graduates of these courses have gone on to become teachers themselves.

In 1982, however, after a long reappraisal of the direction of the growing work in America and his own likely future as head of it, Saraswati left Chinmaya Mission West to retain a more simple life as a teacher rather than an organizational director. Many of the people he had taught left the mission to keep their relationship with him.

Saraswati continued to teach and to write and, in 1986, purchased land in Pennsylvania for a new ashram (religious community). A temple to Lord Dakshinamurthi (a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva) was erected and a new 30-month resident course begun. Saraswati also continues his heavy schedule of travel and teaching around the United States and the world.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Saraswati, Swami Dayananda. Meditation at Dawn. The Author, n.d.

——. Purbamadah Purnamidam. The Author, n.d.

——. The Sadhana and the Sadhya (The Means and the End). Rishikish, India: Sri Gangadhareswar Trust, 1984.

"Swami Dayananda Renounces Chinmaya Mission West: Changes and Challenges Ahead." New Saivite World (Fall 1983).

2190

Art of Living Foundation

PO Box 50003
Santa Barbara, CA 93150

The Art of Living Foundation is the vehicle for the teaching activity of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Hindu spiritual teacher from Bangalore, India. A precocious child, he memorized the Bhagavad Gita when he was four, and began his studies of Indian literature at the age of eight. In the 1980s he began traveling the world teaching the Art of Living course which emphasizes the uses of the ancient sciences in modern life. A major emphasis of Sri Sri's teaching is sudarsha kriya, a technique to restore the natural rhythms of the mental, emotional, and physical life. In 1995, the President of India at the World Conference on Yoga gave him the title of "Yoga Shiromani" (Supreme Flowering of Enlightenment).

He established Ved Vignan Maha Vidya Peeth in Bangalore, India, to engage in community services and spreading Vedic knowledge. It established centers across India. In Canada, England, and the United States, work is carried forth under the name "Art of Living" and in Europe as the Association for Inner Growth.

Membership: Not reported. In 1990 there were centers in 23 countries in all parts of the world.

Sources:

Shankar, Ravi. Bang on the Door: A Collection of Talks. Santa Barbara, CA: Art of Living Foundation, 1990. 101 pp.

2191

Arunachala Ashrama

66-12 Clyde St.
Rego Park, NY 11374

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 606 603, Tumil Nadu, India.

Inspired by the life and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), Arunachala Ashrama was founded in New York City on December 7, 1966. For five years prior to this, weekly meetings had been conducted by those interested in Maharshi and his teachings.

At the age of 16, Ramana Maharshi absorbed himself in a singular inner quest for truth that resulted in his total abidance in God, or the "Self," as he called it. He then left home and resided on the slopes of the Arunachala Mountain, a sacred place of pilgrimage in South India. Living an exceedingly pure life, never touching money, and wearing only a coupina, he remained there for the next 54 years.

His most potent teachings, as attested to by his followers, were imparted in the silence of his presence, which conferred to mature souls the peace of Self-realization. Orally he taught the path of Self-inquiry and Self-surrender. He asked seekers to inquire where from the "I-consciousness" springs, to return to that source, and to abide there. To inquire "Who am I?" is the method of Self Knowledge he most often prescribed. He also taught seekers to throw all the burdens of life upon the Divine and to rest in perfect peace in the heart. He never interfered with outward religious practices or professions. Rather, he taught each person to seek his or her own source, as he believed there is only one source for all, the Supreme Self or God.

Arunachala Ashrama maintains facilities in New York City and a retreat in Nova Scotia, Canada. A routine of prayer and meditation is followed at both locations. Arunachala Ashrama maintains a loose affiliation with Ramana Maharshis ashrama in India, though there are no formal legal or financial ties.

Membership: The ashrama has 450 members. The ashrama is funded by unsolicited donations and the sale of literature on the life and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Periodicals: The Maharshi.

Sources:

Brunton, Paul. A Message from Arunchala. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1971.

Mahadevan, T. M. P. Ramana Maharshi, the Sage of Arunchala. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1977.

Osborne, Arthur. Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1970.

—— ed. The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1962.

2192

Arya Samaj

℅ Arya Pratinidhi Sabha America
Congress of Arya Samajs in North America Ved Niketan
24467 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48336

Alternate Address: International headquarters: ℅ Sarvdeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Dayanand Bhawan, Asaf All Road, New Delhi, India.

Founded in 1875 in colonial India, the Arya Samaj (noble soul) is a reformist Hindu sect representative of the nineteenth-century Hindu Renaissance that emerged in response to both the British and Christian presence in India. It synthesized Hindu ritual practice with new forms of social organization and interaction. It rejected much of traditional Hinduism (most notably idol worship and related animal sacrifice) and emphasized the role of the Vedas as sacred texts. They advocated ten basic principles: 1) God is the original source of all that is true; 2) God is a single, eternal, fully conscious being; 3) the Vedas are the books of all true knowledge;4) all people should be ready to accept truth; 5) all acts should be performed with righteousness and duty; 6) Samajis should promote good to the whole world through physical, spiritual, and social progress of all humans; 7) all interactions should be regulated by love and due justice in accordance with the dictates of righteousness; 8) realization and acquisition of knowledge (vidyaa) should be promoted for all; 9) Samajis should strive for the upliftment of all and not be satisfied with only personal development; and 10) while the individual is free to enjoy individual well-being, everyone should dedicate themselves to overall social good. These principles support a program of anti-caste, universalizing, sentiment of social service.

The Arya Samaj also created a purification ceremony (shuddhikaran) for the conversion (or reconversion) of Hindus. Despite the organizations attack on the caste system, they discovered that many of their members have had difficulty forgetting the caste background of new adherents.

The Samaj was founded by Mul Shankara (1824-1883), who was born and raised in and orthodox Brahmin family in Gujarat. In 1848, he took the vows of sannyasin (the renounced life) in 1848 and assumed the religious name, Dayananda Sarasvati. As the leader of the Arya Samaj, he argued for gender equality and social liberalism (strongly anti-caste). He had an abrasive and polemic style that led to frequent tension with traditional Hidu leaders, though many found his perspective refreshing. He found strong support in the Punjab, where it remains an important movement.

Members of the group spread its universalizing message throughout India and especially in the countries with prominent Indian minorities. In the twentieth century, members moved with the Hindu diaspora to North America though they emerged in strength only in the last quarter of the twentieth century. They have their strongest support in countries such as Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, and Kenya where they have numerous, registered centers for worship. Trinidad is particularly notable for having its first woman to become a Hindu priest (pandit), Indrani Rampersad, a pandita of the Arya Parthinidhi Sabha.

Members of the Arya Samaj began to arrive in North America in measurable number following the change of laws in 1965 that allowed Asians to immigrate and settle. Through the 1980s branch centers were organized and the national organization took shape. By the end of the century, the Arya Samaj had formed branches in almost all the large cities of the United States and Canada; these branches are now related to each other through the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha America. Annually, members from across North America gather for the Arya Maha Sammelan, the main event on the Arya Samaj calendar. The first Sammelan was held in 1991 in Detroit.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Arya Pratinidhi Sabha America. http://www.aryasamaj.com/. 11 January 2002.

Gupta, Shiv Kumar. Arya Samaj and the Raj, 1875-1920. New Delhi: Gitanjali Publishing House, 1991.

Lajpat Rai, Lala. The Arya Samaj: an account of its origin, doctrines, and activities. New Delhi: Reliance Publishing House, 1991.

Yoginder, S. S. "The Fitna of Irtidad: Muslim Missionary Response to the Shuddhi of Arya Samaj in Early Twentieth Century India." Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 17: 1 (1997): 65-83.

2193

Aurobindo, Disciples of Sri

℅ Sri Aurobindo Association
2288 Fulton St., Ste. 310
Berkeley, CA 94704

Alternate Address: Canadian Center: AUM Mother's Home, 50 Rang C, Wotton, Cte Richmond, PQ J0A 1N0; Other United States centers: East West Cultural Center, 12392 Marshall St., Culver City, CA 90230; Wilmot Center, Box 2, Wilmot, WI 53192; Matagiri, HCI Box 98, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457.

Of the many Hindu religious leaders who have arisen in the last century, none remains as enigmatic as Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950). He was given an English education and began to make his mark as a literary figure. When Bengal, his native state, was the center of the independence movement, Aurobindo became a political activist. Thrown in jail on sedition charges, he turned to the Hindu scriptures and began to practice yoga. He had a vision of Krishna which changed the course of his life. Released from jail, he soon fled to French-controlled Pondicherry as a refugee and continued his spiritual practice.

The next years were spent in writing, yoga, and the building of an ashram. Most of his famous books appeared in the sixteen years prior to what is referred to as "The Day of the Siddha," November 24, 1926. On that day he claimed that Krishna (the popular Hindu deity) descended into the physical, thus preparing for the descent of the Supermind (the Divine) and Ananda (Bliss). His spiritual collaborator was Mira Richards (1878-1973), a French divorcee who met Aurobindo prior to World War I. She built up the ashram and, after 1926, when Aurobindo ceased to see people, she became the contact between him and his disciples. The "Mother," as she is known, had seen Aurobindo in her dreams before she came to Pondicherry in 1914. From 1950 to her death in 1973, she sustained the work of transformation.

Aurobindo's thought has often been compared with that of Teilhard de Chardin, as it was an evolutionary philosophy based upon man's growth in consciousness both individually and collectively. God–pure existence, will force–draws man to himself. Creation is the result of his "descent" and the evolution is as much a divine work as man's progress. It is believed that the supermental consciousness and its manifestation in 1956 will eventually bring about the evolutionary change from "man" to "superman."

The means to achieve the life divine is yoga. Aurobindo taught what is termed "integral yoga," based in part on vedenta and tantra. It includes the traditional forms of yoga and psychology of the internal psychic self, but worked primarily by a descent of the shakti into the mind.

In India, the Sri Aurobindo Society has established an international section to service centers outside of the country. In the United States, a number of more-or-less independent centers have arisen. Among the important centers are Matagiri in Mt. Tremper, New York, and Lotus Light in Wilmot, Wisconsin. In California, three prominent centers have survived for years. These include the East-West Cultural Center, founded by Judith Tyberg in 1953; the Cultural Integration Fellowship, founded by Haridas Chaudhuri; and the Atmaniketan Ashram, a residence center in Pomona, California. There are numerous smaller centers.

International headquarters remain at the ashram in Pondicherry. In 1972, it published a 30-volume centenary edition of Aurobindo's works later supeerceded by a 20-volume set. More recently the Institute for Evolutionary Research in Mt. Vernon, Washington has released a 13-volume set of the Mother's Agenda, 1951-1973.

Membership: Not available.

Periodicals: Collaboration.

Sources:

Chaudhuri, Haridas. The Evolution of Integral Consciousness. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1977.

Donnelly, Morwenna. Founding the Life Divine. Lower Lake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1976.

Kluback, William. Sri Aurobindo Ghose The Dweller in the Lands of Silence. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.

McDermott, Robert, ed. The Essential Aurobindo. New York: Schrocken Books, 1973.

——. Six Pillars. Chambersburg, PA: Wilson Books, 1974.

Minor, Robert Neil. Sri Aurobindo: The Perfect and the Good. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1978.

Minor, Robert N. The Religious, the Spiritual, and the Secular: Auroville and Secular India. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Prasad, Narayan. Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1968.

2194

Badarikashrama

15602 Maubert Ave.
San Leandro, CA 94578

Badarikashrama is a spiritual and cultural center that promotes a life of dedicated service based upon Vedic wisdom. Established in 1983, the ashrama conducts three worship services daily, Sunday school, Hindu rites for family occasions, and festival celebrations. It also offers instruction in music, philosophy, literature, yoga, Sanskrit, meditation, and puja (techniques of worship). Ongoing activities include concerts, festivals, retreats, weekend programs and children's programs.

Badarikashrama's work is inspired by the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. It was established by Swami Omkarananda, who as a young seeker in India came into contract with the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. He came to the United States in 1970 and after several years of work returned to India where he took his final vows of sannyasa from Mandaleswara Sri Swami Vidyananda Giri at Kailashashrama in Rishikish. He returned to the United States and founded Badarikashrama. Swami Omkarananda combines the renounced life with a life of service. He makes himself available for spiritual counseling, satsanga, and guidance in spiritual and cultural issues. He offers home worship throughout California and promotes Vedic teachings throughout the United States.

In 1984, an associate branch of Badarikashrama was begun in Madihalli, Karnataka, India. Ongoing activities there include evening devotional singing (kirtan), weekly music and Sanskrit classes, and yoga training camps. There is also an ayurvedic herbal garden. Accomodations are provided for individuals and groups wishing to visit Madihalli ashrama for short and long-term spiritual retreats. At present, a variety of programs are being developed including local community training in health and sanitation, an English tutorial service, provisions of nutritional supplements, and the establishment of a resident school. It continues to serve as a place for the residence and training of women and men interested in leading a monastic life of service. Swami Mangalananda currently directs the program at Madihalli.

Membership: In 1997 the ashrama reported 900 adherents at its American center and an additonal 1,500 at its Indian center.

Periodicals: Badarikashrama SandeshaSandesha.

2195

Barry Long Foundation International

6230 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 251
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: BCM Box 876, London, United Kingdom WC1 3XX.

Barry Long is a spiritual teacher who emerged in Australia in the 1970s but now resides in New South Wales. In 1965 Long had a realization of immortality or "mystic death," the first of a series which led to his realization of the master consciousness.

Long teaches that there is no duality between himself and the power. He eschews most religious forms and emphasizes the living of truth. His teachings are introduced through what is termed the "Course in Being." He also has authored books on self-discovery, meditation, and self-knowledge.

Membership: Not reported. There are centers of the foundation in England, Australia, and North America. It does not have formal membership.

2196

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation

PO Box 256
Tomales, CA 94971

The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, founded by Indian teacher Eknath Easwaran in 1961, offers programs and publications presenting an Eight-Point Program of meditation and allied living skills. The center considers its approach as nondenominational, nonsectarian, and free from dogma and ritual, and the organization is not affiliated with any religious group or movement. Easwaran was a Professor of English at the University of Nagpur, India, when he came to the United States on the Fulbright exchange program in 1959. He has been writing and offering instruction in meditation and world mysticism in the San Francisco Bay Area regularly since 1965. The interest in meditation he encountered while at the University of California-Berkeley prompted him to find the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. His class at the university in 1967 is believed to be the first academic course on meditation taught for credit on a major American campus.

The basis of the Eight-Point Program is meditation while the other points integrate meditation with daily life. The program includes: 1) Meditation: Going slowly and silently, in the mind, through inspirational passages from the world's great religions, for half-an-hour each morning. (Because of its universality, everyone is encouraged to begin with the Prayer of St. Francis ("Lord, make me an instrument of the peace…"). 2) Mantram: Silent repetition in the mind of a holy name, mantram, or "prayer word" chosen from those hallowed by the world's great religions (the Jesus Prayer, Barukh attah Adonai, Allahu akbar, Om mani padme hum, Rama, Rama, etc.) whenever possible during the rest of the day.3) Slowing Down: Simplifying activities and priorities so as to resist the pressure to hurry through the day. 4) One-Pointed Attention: Giving complete concentration to whatever one does. 5) Training the Senses: Undoing conditioned habits and learning to enjoy what is beneficial. 6) Putting Others First: Gaining freedom from self-centered thinking and behavior by focusing attention on the needs of the whole instead of dwelling on ourselves. 7) Spiritual Companionship: Spending time regularly with others who are following the same Eight-Point Program, for mutual inspiration and support. 8) Reading the Mystics: Filling the mind with inspiration from writings by and about the world's great spiritual figures and from the scriptures of all religions.

The Blue Mountain Center offers weekend and weeklong retreats in northern California near its headquarters in Tomales and one-day and weekend retreats at various sites around the country. Nilgiri Press, the center's publishing branch, publishes books and tapes on meditation and world mysticism. Eknath Easwaran has written 23 books which have been translated in 15 languages, in addition to translations of Indian scriptural classics (the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Dhammapada) and an anthology of passages for meditation from the worlds's major religions, God Make the Rivers to Flow.

Membership: The Blue Mountain Center is not a membership organization; however, some 25,000 people receive it newsletter.

Periodicals: Blue Mountain.

Sources:

Easwaran, Eknath. The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living. Berkeley, CA: Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, 1975.

——. Dialogue with Death. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1981.

——. Like a Thousand Suns. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1979.

——. A Man to Match His Mountains. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1984.

——. The Mantram Handbook. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1977.

——. The Supreme Ambition. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1982.

2197

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University

46 S. Middle Neck Rd.
Great Neck, NY 11021

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Post Office 3, Box 2, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India 307501; Canadian headquarters: 897 College St., Toronto, ON, Canada M6H 1A1.

The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University was founded in Karachi in 1936. Over a period of several months, the founder, Dada Lekhraj, who was a prosperous businessman, felt the need to invest more time in quite reflection and solitude. Then one day, while in a meditative state, he felt a warm glow of energy surrounding him, filling him with light and exposing him to a series of powerful visions. These gave new insights into the innate qualities of the human soul, revealing the mysterious entity of God and explaining the process of world transformation. The intensity of the message they conveyed was such that Dada Lekhraj, now known as Brahma Baba, felt impelled to wind up his business and devote himself to understanding the significance and application of this revealed knowledge. Brahma Baba left his body in 1969 at the age of 93 after entrusting leadership of the university to a group of young women. The university continues to be administered by women to the present day.

The program of the Brahma Kumaris is centered upon the practice of Raja Yoga, a method of meditation that develops a clear understanding of the relationship between soul and matter, mind and body, and the interplay between soul, God, and the material world. No mantras or special postures are required. Students gradually gain experience in calming a busy mind, creating positive thoughts, and forming a connection with God as the ultimate source of peace and happiness.

Membership: As of 2002, the Brahma Kumaris is located in 86 countries with 4,900 centers and more than 500,000 regular members or "students." The United States has centers in New York, Boston, Austin, Milpitas, Sacramento, Washington (DC), Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seal Beach, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa, and Honolulu. The centers in Canada are located in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec, and Winnipeg.

Educational Facilities: Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center.

Periodicals: The World Renewal. • Purity Heart and Soul. • Gyanamrit.

Sources:

Brahma Baba–The Corporeal Medium of Shiva Baba. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, n.d.

Illustrations on Raja Yoga. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1975.

Living Values: A Guidebook. London: Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, 1995. 110pp.

Moral Values, Attitudes and Moods. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1975.

Visions of a Better World London. Brahma Kumars World Spiritual University, 1994. 205pp.

The Way and Goal of Raja Yoga. Mount Abu, India: Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1975.

2198

Center of Being

(Defunct)

The Center of Being was a short-lived movement founded in 1979 by Baba Prem Ananda, also known as "Anandaji" (b. 1949), and Her Holiness Sri Marashaam Devi, affectionately known as Mataji, an African American woman considered by her followers to be an avatar (a self-realized master of the highest order). Mataji was believed to have been born fully enlightened, and to have retained that state for the first twelve years of her life. At the age of 12 she began to regress in order to experience the separation from the divine and the path to reunion. During the twelve-year period of regression, she retained some communion with the divine and experienced many unusual powers, among them an ability to see Lord Shiva (considered a prominent Hindu deity) who functioned directly as her guru. At the age of 24, she regained the state of enlightenment and began to teach privately. One of her first disciples, Anandaji, assisted her in the formation of the Center of Being and in her public teaching activity. Anandaji also attained the enlightened state.

Mataji taught a path of Enlightenment, a spontaneous way of being beyond intellectual rules and answers. Mataji, as a divine personage, was able to bestow this grace, which leads to Enlightenment. She offered herself in weekly "darshans," sessions in which disciples sat in her presence, and in "grace intensives" (thrice annually). Darshan sessions included lectures by Mataji and question and answer sessions. Devotional worship services directed to the deities and to Mataji were held quarterly.

At the Center of Being's height in the mid-1980s, there was one center in Los Angeles and a journal, Lila, was published.

Membership: In 1986 there was only one center, in Los Angeles, and less than a hundred disciples.

Periodicals: Lila. Send orders to Box 3384, Los Angeles, CA90078.

2199

Chinmaya Mission West

PO Box 129
Piercy, CA 95587

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Powai Park Dr., Mumbai, 400072 India.

Swami Chinmayananda is an independent teacher of Vedanta who in 1949 was initiated into sannyas, the renounced life, by Swami Sivananda Saraswati at Rishikish, India. With Sivananda's blessing, Chinmayananda traveled into the Himalayan Mountains to Uttar Kasi to study with a learned teacher, Swami Tapovanam, known for his knowledge of the Hindu scriptures. He studied with Tapovanam for several years. In 1951 he began to share his knowledge with the public. As people responded the Chinmaya Mission evolved.

Chinmayananda first came to North America in the 1960s. As he periodically toured the country, groups of disciples came into existence. In 1975 Chinmaya Mission West was incorporated. Once formed, assisted by Chinmayananda's charismatic personality and drive, the Mission spread rapidly.

Chinmaya Mission has been distinguished both by its Vedantic teachings and its emphasis upon knowledge of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, the two main Hindu scriptures. Chinmayananda has authored numerous books, including commentaries on the Gita and Upanishads, and his discourses are available on video.

Membership: In 1997 the Mission reported 4,000 members in 200 centers in the United States and 1,000 members in seven centers in Canada. These are affiliated centers in India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and various locations across Europe.

Educational Facilities: Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Mumbai, India.

Periodicals: Mananam. • Mananam Quarterly Journal CMW Newsletter.

Sources:

Chinmayananda, Swami. Kindle Life. Madras: Chinmaya Publications Trust, n.d.

——. A Manual for Self-Unfoldment. Napa, CA: Chinmaya Publication (West), 1975.

——. Meditation (Hasten Slowly). Napa, CA: Family Press, 1974.

——. The Way to Self-Perfection. Napa, CA: Chinmaya Publications (West), 1976.

The Holy Geeta with commentary by Swami Chinmayananda. Bombay: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, n.d.

2200

Church of the Christian Spiritual Alliance (CSA)

Lake Rabun Rd.
Box 7
Lakemont, GA 30552

The Church of the Christian Spiritual Alliance (CSA) was founded in 1962 by H. Edwin O'Neal, a Baptist; his wife, Lois O'Neal, an advocate of Religious Science; and William Arnold Lapp, a Unitarian. Its stated purpose was "to teach the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man as interpreted in the light of modern-day experience." It emerged as a highly eclectic organization which combined Christian, psychic and Eastern insights. It absorbed Orion, a popular independent occult monthly founded by Ural R. Murphy of Charlotte, North Carolina, and continues its publication, now as an annual.

In the late 1960s, the church was joined by Roy Eugene Davis, a former student of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda and leader of the Self-Realization Fellowship center in Phoenix, Arizona. Davis had left SRF and formed New Life Worldwide. He brought his organization and its periodical (which became Truth Journal) into CSA. Davis's traveling and speaking gave CSA a national audience.

CSA took a decisive turn in 1977 when O'Neal resigned as chairman of the board and president of the publishing complex and was replaced by Davis. The focus of CSA has in the ensuing years been that of Davis, who has established the church as part of the larger New Age movement with its concerns of astrology, holistic health, and meditation. The yoga teachings of Yogananda as presented through Davis have become the central core of the teachings. Davis keeps a year-round schedule of seminars around the United States. His ecumenical approach to religion is in keeping with the New Age emphases.

The educational arm of the church is the Center for Spiritual Awareness at Lakemont. Each summer a full retreat and workshop progam is held at CSA. Featured is a teacher training seminar designed to prepare CSA ministers. The Shrine of All Faiths and Sacred Initiation Temple are part of the headquarters complex. Initiation into kriya yoga is offered to members.

Membership: In 1991, the alliance reported 25 centers and meditation groups in the United States and five in foreign countries–Canada, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa.

Periodicals: Truth Journal. • Orion.

Sources:

Davis, Roy Eugene. An Easy Guide to Meditation. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1978.

——. God Has Given Us Every Good Thing. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1986.

——. The Path of Soul Liberation. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1975.

——. The Teachings of the Masters of Perfection. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1979.

——. The Way of the Initiate. St. Petersburg, FL: New Life World-Wide, 1968.

——. Yoga-Darshana. Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1976.

2201

Datta Yoga Center

RD 2, Box 2084
Moniteau Rd.
Sunbury, PA 16061

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashrama, Datta Peetam, Mysore Ooty Rd., 570 004, India.

Datta Yoga Center is an outpost of the international movement built around His Holiness Sri Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji. Swamiji was born in Mekedati Village, Karnataka, in southern India. He became a postman, although as a youth he had been religiously inclined and a devoted practitioner of yoga. He became known for his healing powers and his ability to work miracles. During his early adulthood, Swamiji began to gather a following, and in the mid-1960s he founded a spiritual center that was located in Mysore, India, in 1966. He traveled widely around India and in the 1970s began to travel in Europe. He also traveled to the United States and the Caribbean, opening the first United States center in 1986 in Pennsylvania.

Swamiji is considered by followers to be an avadhuta (liberated one), in the tradition of Lord Dattatreya. His teachings are multifaceted and described as "universal and unconstrained by religious dogma." He teaches kriya yoga as a method to realize the One Reality as referred to in the teachings of advaita vedanta. The centers serve as temples at which pujas and homas (worship services) are performed. Always musically inclined, Swamiji has composed numerous bhajans (spiritual songs) and instrumental meditation music which are a major part of the gatherings of devotees. He is an advocate of ayurvedic medicine, and sponsors a hospital for the underprivileged in India.

Membership: The Center is not a membership organization. There are several hundred devotees (as of 1992) in the United States. Associated centers can also be found in Malaysia, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Trinidad.

Periodicals: Bhakti Mala.

Sources:

Ganapati Sachchidananda, Swami. Dattatreya the Absolute. Trinidad: Dattatreya Yoga Centre, 1984.

——. Forty-two Stories. Trinidad: Dattatreya Gyana Bodha Sabha, 1984.

——. Insight into Spiritual Music. Mysore, India: The Author, n.d.

——. Sri Dattatreya Laghu Puja Kalpa. Mysore, India: The Author, 1986.

H. H. Sri Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji: A Rare Jewel in the Spiritual Galaxy of Modern Times. Mysore, India: Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Trust, n.d.

Swamiji, Ganapati Sachchidananda. Insight into Spiritual Music. Mysore, India: The Author, n.d.

2202

Deva Foundation

336 S. Doheny Dr., No. 7
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

The Deva Foundation was founded in Sweden in the early 1980s by Dr. Deva Maharaj (1948), a high caste Hindu and doctor of ayurveda and homeopathic medicine. Before leaving India, he had studied yoga and meditation at the Yoga Research Hospital in New Delhi. He came to the United States in the mid-1980s and established headquarters in Beverly Hills, California. The stated aim of the foundation is to bridge the gap between Western psychology and Eastern philosophy. It offers members a wide variety of approaches drawn from both Eastern and Western techniques for personal growth, transformation, and enlightenment. These include various health classes, self-hypnosis, nutrition, acupressure, massage, and shaktipat, the awakening of the kundalini, the latent energy believed to rest at the base of the spine. Members may also participate in the activities of the Tantra House operated by the foundation, an educational center which teaches the esoteric secrets of sexuality and spirituality.

Deva travels widely and has become a radio and television personality because of his clairvoyant abilities.

Membership: In 1987, the foundation reported two centers in the United States and one in Canada. There were approximately 100 members in the United States and 1,000 members internationally.

Educational Facilities: Yoga Center, New Delhi, India.

2203

Devatma Shakti Society

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Devatma Shakti Society was formed in 1976 by Swami Shivom Tirth (b. 1924) for the practice of the shaktipat system of yoga, a system revived by Swami Gangadhar Tirth Maharaj. Little is known of this swami; he lived in solitude and initiated only one disciple, Kali Kishore Gangopadhyay, who became known as Swami Narayan Tirth Dev Maharaj (1870-1935). He founded an meditation center in Madaripur, Faridpur, India and passed his succession to Shri Yoganandaji Maharaj (d.1959). Yoganandaji established an ashram in Rishikish. He initiated Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj (d.1969) who established the Narayan Kuti Sanyas Ashram at Dewas.

Swami Shivom Tirth was initiated by Vishnu Tirth in 1959 and took the vows of the sannyasin (the renounced life) in 1963. During the 1970s, Shivom Tirth began to propagate the shaktipat system outside of India, first in Europe and Southeast Asia and then in America. The first ashram in North America was established in central Texas. Shivom Tirth occasionally visits America on lecture tours, visiting his disciples across the United States.

Shaktipat is the descent of the power of the guru upon the disciple, thus activating the disciple's own latent kundalini shakti, often pictured as a serpent sleeping coiled at the base of the spine. The awakening of the energy and its movement up the spinal column to the top of the head produces enlightenment. This way to enlightenment is through the guru's grace and bypasses the years of effort and discipline necessary in other forms of yoga.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Turth, Shivam. A Guide to Shaktipat. Paige, TX: Devatma Shakti Society, 1985.

2204

Devi Mandir

5950 Hwy. 128
Napa, CA 94558-9632

Devi Mandir, also called the Temple of the Divine Mother, is a Hindu center established in a town in the San Francisco Bay Area by two people known by their religious names, Shree Maa and Swami Satyananda. Swami Satyananda is an American who in the 1960s traveled to India as a seeker of spiritual enlightenment. He remained there, receiving spiritual nurture from various teachers and activities until meeting Shree Maa in the 1980s. Shree Maa was born in Assam, India, and began to devote her life to spiritual practice as a teenager. She received many visions and became known throughout India as a spiritual teacher. She heads the Sanatan Dharma Societies in India with centers at Calcutta, Belur, and Gauhati. After their meeting, the pair became inseparable, and Swami Satynanda traveled with Maa as she held celebrations of worship. The two came to California in the mid-1980s and established the Devi Mandir as a center in Moraga (later relocated to Martinez and then to Napa) for the performance of the ancient Vedic fire worship.

The Devi Mandir is a traditional Hindu temple at which an annual round of Hindu festivals are celebrated. In the altar area, statues of many of the primary deities of Hinduism have been installed, including Shiva and Durga, Brahma and Saraswati, Vishnu and Lakshmi, Kali, and many others. Puja (worship) is offered daily. For three years at the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, Shree Maa and Swami Satyananda devoted themselves to 1,000 days of continuous worship, during which neither left the temple. During this period they tended the fire inside the temple, making sure that it did not die out.

Shree Maa promotes devotion to the deities through the performance of puja. Swami Satyananda has written and translated several books to assist attendees at the temple in their worship, including a beginner's guide to Sri Siva Puja. Shree Maa also promotes a behavior code that grows out of the devoted life. She advises attendees at the temple to be true, simple, and free. They should take refuge in God, cultivate wisdom, develop discrimination (or discernment), and allow their actions to manifest love. She notes that spirituality is simple, noting the saying of a sage–that God is everywhere and thus if one hurts any form, he is hurting himself. In like measure, if he raises any form to a higher level, he elevates himself.

Membership: Not reported. The temple serves both Indian Americans and American converts to Hinduism.

Sources:

Johnsen, Linda. Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India. St. Paul, MN: Yes International Publishers, 1994. 128pp.

Satya Nanda, Swami, trans. Kali Dhyanam: Meditation on Maha Kali and the Adya Stotram. Martinez, CA: Devi Mandir, 1990. 28 pp.

——. Sri Siva Puja: Beginner. Martinez, CA: Devi Mandir, 1990. 40 pp.

——. Saty Narayan Katha: The Vow to Speak and Act in Truth. Martinez, CA: Devi Mandir, 1990. 16 pp.

2205

Dhyanyoga Centers

PO Box 3194
Antioch, CA 94531

Indian yoga teacher Dhyanyogi Mahant Madhusudandasji Maharaj left home as a child of 13 to seek enlightenment. He spent the next 40 years as a wandering student, during which time he met and worked with his guru whom he discovered at Mt. Abu in Rajasthan State in northern India. From his guru he received shaktipat, a transmission of power believed to release the latent power of kundalini, pictured as residing at the base of the spine. The emergence of that power and the experience of its traveling up the spine to the crown of the head is considered by many Hindu groups to be the means of enlightenment.

In 1962 Dhyanyogi Madhusudandasji ceased his wanderings and began to teach. He established an ashram at Bandhvadi, Gujurat, the first of several in western India. He authored two books, Message to Disciples and Light on Meditation. During the 1970s followers moved to England and the United States. He made his first visit to his Western disciples in 1976 and began to build a following among American converts.

Dhyanyogi Madhusudandasji's teachings emphasize meditation (dhyan), or raja yoga, and kundalini yoga. He offers shaktipat to sadhuks (students). As the kundalini awakens the student is open to the guru's continuing influence and is able to shed past encumbrances and to move on the path of enlightenment. The organization's web site is found at http://www/dyc.org.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Madhusudandasji, Dhyanyogi. Brahmanada: Sound, Mantra and Power. Pasadena, CA: Dhyanyoga Centers, 1979.

——. Death, Dying and Beyond. Pasadena, CA: Dhyanyoga Centers, 1979.

——. Light on Meditation. Los Angeles, CA: 1978.

——. Message to Disciples. Bombay: Shri Dhyanyogi Mandal, 1968.

——. Shakti, Hidden Treasure of Power. Pasadena, CA: Dyanyoga Centers, 1979.

2206

Disciples of Rama

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Rama Seminars was founded by Tantric Zen Master Rama (Frederick Lenz) in 1985 to carry on and supersede Lakshmi, an organization he had formed in the 1970s. Lenz is a former English professor and disciple of Sri Chinmoy, with whom he studied for eleven years. Under the name Atmananda, given him by Chinmoy, he taught yoga in New York and Europe. He left Chinmoy and, moving to California in 1979, founded Lakshmi. During the early years of his work in California, his students began to report a number of extraordinary experiences. According to the reports, Lenz would levitate, disappear completely, and/or radiate intense beams of light during group meditations. Soon after these reported experiences, at a gathering of approximately 100 students, Lenz announced that eternity had given him a new name, "Rama."

Rama teaches that humanity is at the end of a cycle. The present period, Kali Yuga, is a dark age. At the end of each cycle or age, Vishnu (a deity of the Hindus) is due to take incarnation. While Rama makes no claim to be the same conscious entity as the historic Rama, a previous incarnation of Vishnu, he does claim to be the embodiment of the "particular octave of celestial light which was once incarnated as Rama."

By 1985 there were approximately 800 full-time students in Lakshmi. Branches had been formed in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Boston. Lakshmi seemed inadequate to the growing task. Rama Seminars was formed to provide a "more sophisticated format…to aid persons seeking enlightenment." Rama describes the teaching of Rama Seminars as Tantric Zen. He claims to have been a Zen master in previous incarnations. Tantric Zen is described as a formless Zen, closely related to Chan (Chinese Zen), Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, Taoism, and jnana yoga.

During the 1990s, amid a controversy centered upon accusations of his misconduct by former members, Lenz relocated to New York and disbanded his organization. He taught computer science and founded a successful computer company, Advanced Systems, Inc., and authored two best-selling books entitled Surfing the Himalayas (1994) and Snowboarding to Nirvana (1997). In 1995 he was cited by New York magazine as one of the "100 Smartest New Yorkers". He died at the age of 48 in April 1998 in an accident at his home in Long Island. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear. The death of Lenz makes the future of the circle of disciples uncertain.

Membership: Not reported. Rama regularly teaches seminars in Southern California.

Periodicals: Self-Discovery.

Sources:

The Last Incarnation. Malibu, CA: Lakshmi Publications, 1983.

Lenz, Frederick. Life Times. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1979.

Rama [Frederick Lenz]. The Wheel of Dharma. Malibu, CA: Lakshmi Publications, 1982.

2207

Divine Awareness Center

(Defunct)

The Divine Awareness Center was founded in 1989 by Yogi Kamal, an Indian teacher and disciple of Siddha Guru Swami Yogiraj Nanak an enlightened master, the founder of the Adhyatmic Sadhana Sangh in India. Yogiraj Nanak was the spiritual heir of the famous sixteenth-century saint and poet Malukdasji Maharaj, also looked upon as an enlightened master, who worked from his residence in Kara, Allahabad, India. The center taught the full range of yoga, but concentrated upon a new technique developed by Yogiraj Nanak, de-hypnotic meditation, a way of meditating that combined older yogic insights and metaphysics with new scientific discoveries.

According to Yogi Kamal, the modern world produced a peculiar heightened situation of tension, turmoil, unrest, and social destruction. The individual affected by the social disintegration manifested a variety of symptoms including shallow breathing, improper diet, degeneration of the nervous system, decreased energy, anxiety, and mental instability. Human problems were increased due to the intimate relationship of mind and body. What hurt one hurt the other, and curing one meant curing the other. The mind often retained the effects of illness and caused reoccurrences of illness when not cared for.

De-hypnotic meditation consisted of six steps: bodily relaxation, proper breathing, thought of the brilliant light, concentration on the organ of the sixth sense (pineal gland), concentration on the sound wave (symbolized in the word "om"), and quietness. It was believed that the practice of de-hypnotic meditation lead to the reduction of stress, self-healing, the harmonization of mind and body, the breaking of old habits, and the production of healthy vibrations. Those who practiced it learned how to keep negative thoughts away, to command the subconscious mind, to tap the divine power, and to develop the divine magnetic aura.

The initial Divine Awareness Center was opened in Los Angeles as a base for founding centers in other cities. In 1998 Yogi Kamal abandoned his work and closed the center.

Membership: The center is a non-membership organization.

2208

Divine Love Mission

℅ Kripalu Bhavanam
17409 Durbin Park Rd.
Edmond, OK 73003

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Kripalu Kuteer, Village & Post Mangarh, District Pratapgarh, UP, India. Canadian headquarters: Sadhana Mandir, 30 Nantucket Blvd., Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

The Divine Love Mission grew out of the work of the devotion inspired by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (born in 1922 as Ram Kripalu Tripathi in Mangarth, near Allahabad, India). After completing his formal education, at the age of 16 he found his way to Vrindavan and the next year emerged as a guru known affectionately as Shri Maharaj Ji. He is remembered for leading devotees in a six-month continuous chanting of the hare Krishna mantra when he was only 17 years old. He was 34 years old when given the title "Jagadguru" (world-teacher) on January 14, 1957, by the Kashi Vidvat Parishad, a group of Hindu scholars. As such, he is seen by his followers to stand in a lineage that includes Jagadguru Shankaracharya, Jagadguru Nimbarkacharya, Jagadguru Ramanujacharya, and Jagadguru Madhavacharya (all well-known figures from Hindu history).

The teachings of Shri Maharaj Ji were first spread in America by Siddheshvari Devi (Didi Ji). She led in the founding of the American branch of the Divine Love Mission in 1997. The mission teaches the bhakti yoga tradition of India, similar to the Krishna devotion made popular by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), but completely independent of that organization. Shri Maharaj Ji has taught that, "The essence of all doctrines is to love Lord Krishna, the Supreme Master, and to meditate on His Divine Form with an increasing desire to serve Him. This is the true ultimate knowledge." He has summarized the tradition in his book of poems, Bhakti Shatak: Hundred Gems of Divine Love, posted on the Internet. He has also authored a number of books, English translations of which are being published by the mission.

Membership: Not reported. The mission operates out of three main centers in India, three in the United States (Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan), and one in Canada.

Sources:

Divine Love Mission. http://www.divinelovemission.org/home.asp. 10 May 2002.

2209

Fivefold Path Inc

℅ Parama Dham
Rte. 8, Box 369
Madison, VA 22727

Fivefold Path Inc. was founded in Madison, Virginia, in 1973 by Vasant Paranjpe, who had received a divine command to come to the United States and teach kriya yoga, the Fivefold Path. From the Virginia headquarters, Paranjpe began to visit and teach in neighboring cities–Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Riverton, New Jersey. A semimonthly periodical was begun, and a fire temple consecrated at Param Dham, the name given the headquarters.

The Fivefold Path is a system of kriya yoga which begins with purification of the atmosphere as a step leading to the purification of the mind. Its steps include the following: 1. Agnihotra, a fire ceremony done at sunrise and sunset each day; 2. Daan, sharing one's assets in a spirit of humility; 3. Tapa, self-discipline; 4. Karma, right action; and 5. Swadhyaya, self-study. The Fivefold Path, derived from the teachings of the Vedas, is also called the Satya Dharma (Eternal Religion). It respects all avatars and divine messengers and makes no distinction between them. Anyone of any religion may learn the teachings of the Fivefold Path. Vasant has stated that he has come to fulfill the biblical prophecy of Daniel 8:26: "This vision about the evening and moring sacrifices which has been explained to you (i.e., Agnihotra) will come true. But keep it secret now, because it will be a long time before it does come true" (The Good News Bible translation).

Membership: Fivefold Path Inc. is not a membership organization. As of 1995, the Fivefold Path had spread to all continents, and its literature has been translated into several languages.

Periodicals: Satsang.

Sources:

Paranjpe, Vasant V. Grace Alone. Madison, VA: Fivefold Path, 1971.

——. Homa Farming, Our Last Hope. Madison, VA: Fivefold Path, 1986.

——. Homa Therapy: Our Last Chance. Madison, VA: Fivefold Path 1989. 79 pp.

——. Light Towards Divine Path. N.p., n.d. 57 pp.

——. Ten Commandments of Parama Sadguru. Randallstown, MD: Agnihotra Press, 1976.

2210

Foundation of Revelation

59 Scott St.
San Francisco, CA 94117

The Foundation of Revelation was formed in 1970 in San Francisco by persons who recognized the existence of perfect knowledge and practical omnipotence in the form of a "beggar" then living in the village of Gorkhara near Calcutta, India. The man had been born of a ruling Brahmin family in 1913 and spent his early years as an avid student of various forms of modern knowledge. On the eve of June 14, 1966, he perceived that the illusions of these limited and disintegrating forms of modern knowledge were burned down by Agni, the fire of knowledge, and on September 19, 1966, the convergence of persisting cosmic existence, the luminous nature of consciousness, was concentrated in the person of this Yogi as Siva, the Destroyer. Thus 1966 is the first year of a new era of Siva Kalpa (meaning the period of time of Lord Siva's omnipotent imagination).

To the Foundation, Siva is the creator of conscious life and the destroyer of ignorance, whose pure love of knowledge moves the forms of ego into intensifying contradictions of their own divisive natures to the point of spontaneous recoil toward the synthesis of body, life and mind. He is considered the most accessible of powers. He never refused the request of a supplicant, perhaps his most dangerous attribute, and he surrounds himself with those from the extremes of the social spectrum whose natural penchant for truth, the power of self-expression, and the ability to manifest same, holds them apart from the world of mediocrity, always gravitating to the heights or depths of existence in the pull toward ultimate perfection.

The first Western contact with the holy man was in 1968 when he made an appearance at the Spiritual Summit Conference in Calcutta, India, sponsored by the Temple of Understanding of Washington, D.C. Several delegates followed him home and one, Charlotte P. Wallace, now president of the foundation, stayed to learn. Word spread of his work, and, in 1969, he was invited to the United States to take up residence in San Francisco, which became the world headquarters of the foundation. Those from countries around the world who witnessed his revelations firsthand returned to their respective countries to organize themselves within the spirit and corporate structure of the foundation to create bases for international communication and activity, with the single purpose of breaking down the barriers of nationality, religion, and race and foster the mutually beneficial and harmonious relationships of nations.

The foundation is led by a governing body consisting of the president and seven officers. Each country has a president directly responsible to the world president. Each local leader is responsible to the national president.

Membership: In 1997 the foundation reported 5,000 members in the United States and 25,000 members in the world. There were 21 centers worldwide in 10 countries.

2211

Gangaji Foundation

505 A San Marin Dr., Ste. 120
Novato, CA 94945

Harivansh Lal Poonja (1910-1998) (affectionately called Poonjaji by his students), is a teacher of advaita vedanta, the Indian philosophy of nonduality. He was born in 1910 in Gujranwala, India (Pakistan), and grew up in what is now Pakistan. His mother was the sister of Swami Rama Tirtha (d. 1906), an early twentieth-century vedanta teacher who was one of the first Hindu gurus in America. He married and joined the army, but his only interest was in the spiritual life. In 1944 he met Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) and stayed with him until he was forced to return to his family at the time of the partition of Pakistan. He cared for his family until the last child left home, and then in 1966, he retired and began a period of his life as one who had discovered absolute oneness. He wandered for many years, but finally settled in Lucknow, India.

Poonjaji emphasizes a simple message. Human beings are pure consciousness and hence absolutely free. The spiritual life is not a matter of attaining freedom, but of realizing that one is already free.

Poonjaji met many of the Americans who came to India on spiritual quests beginning in the 1960s. During the 1980s he made several trips to America to teach, but established no permanent work. Then in 1988, Andrew Cohen, one of his students, began teaching in Cambridge, Massachusetts. More recently Cohen has separated from Poonjaji and now heads the Moksha Foundation (California).

In 1990, Antoinette Varner met Poonjaji. Confirming her Self-realization, Poonjaji gave her the name Gangaji and instructed her to carry this message of freedom to the west. Today, Gangaji travels throughout the world holding satsang, and has established Satsang Foundation & Press in Boulder, Colorado, to further the teachings of this lineage to all who are interested.

The Gangaji Foundation's purpose is to serve "truth of universal consciousness, and the potential for individual and collective recognition of peace, inherent in the core of all beings." It is to present the teachings and transmission of Gangaji through Sri Ramana Maharshi and Poonjaji.

The foundation's Internet site is at http://www.gangaji.org.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Ingram, Catherine. "Plunge Into Eternity." Yoga Journal (September/October 1992): 56-63.

Poonja, H.W.L. Wake Up and Roar. Kula, Maui, HI: Pacific Center Press, 1992.

2212

Gaudiya Vaisnava Society

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math, Kolerganj, PO Nabadwip, Dist. Nadia, West Bengal, India.

The Gaudiya Vaishnava Society was founded in the mid-1980s by B. V. Tripurari Swami, formerly a leader in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Tripurari Swami had met A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1972, a year after he had joined ISKCON. Tripurari was initiated into sannyas (the renounced life) in 1975, two years prior to Prabhupada's death. In the years after Prabhupada's death, ISKCON was divided between reformists who denied the new initiating gurus (teachers) a status similar to that held by Prabhupada and the more conservative leaders who saw the new gurus carrying on a guru lineage that made it proper to receive veneration much as Prabhupada had. Tripurari was among the reformists who left the organization and turned to Bhakti Rakshak Sridhara Maharaj (1895-1988), Prabhupada's godbrother. (The godbrother relationship exists when two or more are initiated by the same guru.) Remaining in India when Prabhupada went to America, Sridhara Maharaj centered his work upon the Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math in West Bengal. However, he had slowly acquired a worldwide network of centers that had placed themselves under his guidance.

Tripurari and a small group of like-minded ex-ISKCON devotees placed themselves under Sridhara Maharaj's direction. The Gaudiya Vaishnava Society emerged as the organizational expression of the group's work in the United States. Almost immediately the group ran into resistance from the city of San Francisco, California, which had passed an ordinance regulating the society's selling of their literature on the streets. In 1986 they took the city to court and won an injunction against the enforcement of the ordinance.

In 1988 the society released the first issue of its magazine, The Clarion Call, a high quality four-color quarterly in the tradition that had come to be expected from ISKCON. It has found a readership far beyond the Vaishnava community and has treated popular New Age topics such as reincarnation, animal rights, and vegetarianism, all regarded as issues of common concern.

The Gaudiya Vaishnava Society is as one with ISKCON in belief and practice. The issues that divided them have largely been resolved with the dominance of the reform party in ISKCON in the 1980s. However, the society now flows out of the lineage of Sridhara Maharaj, a lineage not found in ISKCON. The society emphasizes a theistic Vaishnava Hinduism, follows a path of devotional service and temple worship (bhakti yoga), and emphasizes as a primary spiritual practice the repetition of the Hare Krishna Mantra:

"Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare."

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: The Clarion Call.

Sources:

"Clarion Call, a Classy New Journal from S. F. Gaudiyas." Hinduism Today 10, 9 (September 1988): 1, 17.

Sridhara Deva Goswami, Srila Bhakti Raksaka. The Golden Volcano of Divine Love. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1984.

——. The Hidden Treasure of the Absolute. West Bengal, India: Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math, 1985.

Thakur, Srila Bhaktivedanta. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: His Life and Precepts. Brooklyn, NY: Gaudiya Press, 1987.

Tripurari, Swami B. V. Ancient Wisdom for Modern Ignorance. Eugene, OR: Clarion Call Publishing, 1994.

2213

Grace Essence Fellowship

℅ Martin Lowenthal
53 Westchester Rd.
Newton, MA 02158

Grace Essence Fellowship was founded in the late 1970s by Lars Short, formerly a student of the late Swami Rudhrananda (1928–1973). Rudrananda, the founder of the Nityananda Institute, Inc. was among the first of the contemporary teachers of kundalini yoga in America. Lars Short trained with Rudrananda and in 1965 began his career as a yoga instructor. After Rudrananda's death, Green went on to study with His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse, a Tibetan master, and to absorb elements of Zen and Taoism into a synthesis which, he notes, Rudrananda had seen emerging as an all-encompassing Spiritual Work.

Short refers to his system as the Way of Radiance. The Way begins in the presupposition that it is possible to live life to the fullest rather than suffer, and to be an agent of grace rather than struggle. It proposes four principles: Life is a gift. All experience can nurture growth. We can live each moment so as to make our self-expression a celebration of life. If we commit ourselves to growth and freedom beyond any set agenda or identity, we can transcend present ways of relating to ourselves, others, and life itself. Short has adapted practices from his several teachers, including Tibetan mindfulness practices and tantric exercises.

Members of the fellowship have the opportunity to train to become practitioners and then seminarians, who take responsibility for passing on the Radiance teachings.

Membership: Not reported. There are eight study groups across the United States, two in Canada, and one in Venezuela.

Sources:

Lowenthal, Martin. "Grace Essence Fellowship: Supporting Growth and Freedom." Tantra 9 (1994): 64-65.

——. "A Spiritual Home in the Grace Essence Fellowship." Tantra 9 (1994): 65.

2214

Haidakhan Sama

℅ Paul Gessler
104 Blue Jay
Placerville, CA 95667

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Haidakhan Ashram, P. O. Haidakhan, via Kathgodam. Dist. Nainital, Utter Predesh 263126, India.

The Haidakhan Samaj was founded in 1980 to coordinate the activities of followers of Haidakhan Baba, also known as Babaji and Mahavatar Babaji. Babaji is believed to be an avatar, a physical incarnation of divinity, who has a history of incarnation over a period of thousands of years. He is known as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, who, in the Hindu tradition, is considered to be the Master Teacher. Babaji incarnates in human form from time to time to demonstrate and teach ways that can lead people to harmony and unity with the Divine.

Present-day disciples of Babaji look to several ancient scriptural reference which may refer to him as well as several nineteenth and twentieth century accounts. The first, and still the major book in the West about Babaji is Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Yogananda wrote of his master's teacher's first encounter with Babaji in the Indian Himalayas in 1863. There are many stories of people's miraculous encounters with Babaji in the last half of the nineteenth century.

There are several books in the Hindi language detailing the incarnation of an avatar-saint known as Haidakhan Baba, who lived in the Kumaon foothills of the Himalayas from about 1890 to 1922. He was recognized then as an incarnation of Lord Shiva and as a form of Mahavatar Babaji. Some of the stories about this incarnation of Babaji were collected and translated by Baba Hari Dass of the Sri Rama Foundation of Davis, California, in a book entitled, Hariakhan Baba Known, Unknown. When he left his body in 1922, Babaji is reported to have said that he would return to help humanity.

In 1949, an Indian saint named Mahendra Baba, who had seen Babaji several times in his childhood and youth, was blessed with a physical manifestation of Babaji in an ashram of Haidakhan Baba. From that time on, Mahendra Baba devoted his life to preparing for the return of Babaji. He wrote several books about Babaji, restored the old ashrams, and called upon people to be ready for his return. Mahendra died in 1969.

In June 1970 Babaji appeared again in Haidakhan Baba's ashram in the Kuaon village of Haidakhan. From then until his death on February 14, 1984, he traveled extensively in northern India and taught from several Babaji ashrams around the country, but spent the majority of his time in the remote village ashram in Haidakhan. Tens of thousands of Indians came to him, and hundreds came from Europe and America. Most of the time, he purposely avoided large crowds in order to perform the traditional guru's task of teaching and training people who were truly dedicated to the attainment of spiritual knowledge and growth. He taught them mostly by example, often on a mind-to-mind level rather than orally. He guided each devotee step by step through the experiences they needed for growth. Many people were brought to Babaji by miraculous experiences.

According to his own claim, Babaji came, in every incarnation, to restore the Sanatan Dharma–the eternal law of order under which the creation was manifested and operates in harmony with the Divine Will. He urged his followers to live in Truth, Simplicity, and Love, seeing all of creation as a manifestation of the Divine, and living in harmony with all. He respected all the established religions, and taught that each one can lead its devotees to unity and true devotion, renouncing the attachment to materialism which chains humankind to its lower nature. As an aid to keeping the Divine foremost in the followers' consciousness, he taught people to repeat the names of God at all times: the mantra which he taught to most people was "Om Namah Shivai," which may be translated as "I take refuge in God (Shiva)."

Babaji's followers worship him through a sung worship service called the aarati, morning and evening, and worship the formless Divine through an ancient fire ceremony, called the yagya or hawan. But the worship most advocated was that of selfless work, karma yoga, performed without ego for the benefit of all living beings, in harmony with the Divine Will.

There are Babaji ashrams and centers in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In the the United States, there are ashrams in Mountain View, Hawaii; Malmo, Nebraska; and at Consciousness Village near Sierraville, California, as well as centers in many cities. A major ashram is under construction in The Baca Grande, Crestone, Colorado.

Membership: In 1995 the ashram reported 90 members in the United States and 10 in Canada. There were 15 centers in the United States and one in Canada. There were 8,000 members worldwide.

Periodicals: American Haidakhan Samaj Newsletter.

Sources:

Goodman, Shdema. Babaji, Meeting with Truth at Hairakhan Vishwa Mahadham. Farmingdale, NY: Coleman Publishing Co., 1986.

Hari, Dass Baba. Hariakhan Baba Known, Unknown. Davis, CA: Sri Rama Foundation, 1975.

Orr, Leonard [and Makhan Singh]. Babaji. San Francisco, CA: The Author, 1979.

Teachings of Babaji. Nainital, India: Haidakhan Ashram, 1983-84.

Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946.

2215

Hanuman Foundation

Box 478
Santa Fe, NM 87501

The Hanuman Foundation, incorporated in 1974, is the focus of a number of activities that had their origin in the continuing career of Baba Ram Dass and were inspired by his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, popularly known as simply Baba. The Foundation's purposes have been to further the spiritual well being of society through education, service, and spiritual training. Its major project has been to support the spiritual teaching of Baba Ram Dass. Ram Dass is the name taken by Richard Alpert, the former professor of psychology at Harvard University who was fired along with Timothy Leary because of their LSD experiments. Within a short time he became discouraged with drugs as a means to attain higher states of consciousness and he turned to India. There he met Bhagwan Dass, a young American guru, and his teacher, Maharaji, who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. From Maharaji he learned raja yoga, the path to God through meditation. Ram Dass also developed a devotion to Hanuman, the monkey-faced deity of popular Hinduism. Maharaj taught him to serve and worship Hanuman, a practice which he has continued over the years, though many of his fans are unaware of it.

Upon returning to the West, Baba Ram Dass wrote and published Be Here Now, which emphasized his ideal of living in the present, other than being tied to the past or contemplating the future. He sees all people on a journey to enlightenment. Each person needs and has a guru to help his progress. Some gurus are on the physical plane, but such is not necessary since the relationship is spiritual. Each person is at a different place on his journey, and, thus, differing exercises are needed by each individual. Some might need yoga, renunciation, mantras, sex, or even psychedelic drugs. For Baba Ram Dass, yoga was the path to enlightenment.

During his first years back in the United States, Ram Dass traveled and spoke from a base in his residence in New Hampshire. Gradually, several organizaitons emerged to dissiminate Ram Dass' teachings. The Orphalese Foundation controlled a tape library and the ZBS Foundation (also known as Amazing Grace) published several records. Ram Dass also found himself at the center of a network that included a variety of service projects. These included a prison-ashram library project and assistance to the Hanuman Foundation, an organization seen as perpetuating the spirit and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba. In the more than a decade of existence, several structures associated with the foundation have emerged as important aspects of the work.

The Hanuman Foundation Tape Library superceded the Orphalese Foundation. It currently distributes audio and video tapes of Ram Dass and several close associates such as Stephen Levine. The Prison Ashram project distributed spiritual literature to prison libraries and has created a manual specially designed for inmates who wished to learn to meditate and follow a spiritual path during their years of imprisonment. In recent years the project has expanded to include residents of halfway houses, mental hospitals, and drug abuse programs.

The Neem Karoli Baba Hanuman Temple is located in a renovated adobe building at Taos, New Mexico. It houses a 1,500-pound marble statue of Hanuman carved to Ram Dass' specifications. It serves approximately 300 Hindu families in a strip from Albuquerque to Denver. There is an annual and a weekly cycle of devotional services anchored in the singing and chanting services each Tuesday (Hanuman day). Hanuman's birthday is celebrated in April and Neem Karoli Baba's Mahasamahdi (death) is celebrated in September.

Seva Foundation, founded by Larry Brillant, a devote of Baba, is an organization which began with a goal to end blindness in Nepal. Though independent of the Hanuman Foundation, Baba Ram Dass has given it his full support and the Hanuman Foundation Tape Library distributes recordings of Ram Dass' lectures promoting its work.

Membership: The Hanuman Foundation is not a membership organization.

Sources:

Dass, Baba Ram. Grist for the Mill. Santa Cruz, CA: Unity Press, 1977.

——. Miracle of Love. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979.

——. The Only Dance There Is. New York: Jason Aaronson, 1976.

——. Remember, Be Here Now. San Christobal, NM: Lama Foundation, 1971.

Inside Out. Nederland, CO: Prison-Ashram Project, Hanuman Foundation, 1976.

2216

Hawaiian Goddess–Source School of Tantra Yoga

Box 69-12
Paia, Maui, HI 96779

Hawaiian Goddess–Source School of Tantra Yoga was founded in the mid-1980s by Charles and Caroline Muir. Charles Muir began to study yoga in 1965 and took his instructor training from Richard Hittleman. In 1974 he founded and directed the "Yoga for Health" Schools in California. In the meantime he became interested in tantra. Caroline Muir is a yoga instructor and massage instructor. The pair began working together in the early 1980s and now teach tantra as a means of physical, mental, and spiritual awakening.

The Muirs strive to facilitate their students to fully express themselves as both physical and spiritual beings and believe that sex and spirit are inextricably connected. Sexual activity thus becomes a means of profound meditation and sexuality a unifying, harmonizing, and spiritualizing force of the universe.

The school offers workshops and seminars in Hawaii, California, and Colorado, and the Muir's teachings are spread through several tapes and one book.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Muir, Charles, and Caroline Muir. Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving. San Francisco: Mercury House, 1989.

2217

Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science an Philosophy

RR 1, Box 1127
Honesdale, PA 18431

Swami Rama (1925–1996) was a learned philosopher and master yogi who came to the United States to teach. As a child, he was adopted by an accomplished yogi from Bengal and raised in the tradition of the cave monasteries of the Himalyas. In 1949 he attained the position of Shankaracharya, an honor he relinquished in 1952 to further his own teaching goals. He came to the United States in 1969 where he served as research consultant to Menninger Foundation Research Project on Voluntary Controls of External States. Working with psychologists Elmer Green and his wife Alyce Green, he demonstrated extraordinary physical feats of body-function control that offered significant material for the understanding of the mind/body connection. Swami Rama taught superconscious meditation, "a unique system to awaken the sleeping energy of consciousness, to raise its volume and intensity so that individual awareness becomes one with the Universal Self". It involves relaxation, posture, breathing, and mantras.

He founded the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in 1971 in Illinois. The institute headquarters moved to Honesdale Pennsylvania, in 1977. Yoga, meditation, and holistic health are the main emphases of the institute. All levels of hatha yoga are taught, and raja yoga is emphasized as a means to balance body, mind, and spirit.

The Himalayan Institute publishes over 80 books on yoga science, meditation, health, psychology, and philosophy. It also publishes the bimonthly magazine Yoga International. Programs at the centers, especially at the headquarters campus, include a wide range of seminars, health programs, and residential programs.

Membership: In 2002, the institute reported 37 branch and affiliated centers in the United States and abroad. Foreign work is conducted in Canada, India, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Trinidad, Curacao, and Malaysia. In 2002, there were 1,500 members in the United States.

Periodicals: Yoga International.

Sources:

Inspired Thoughts of Swami Rama. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1983.

Rama, Swami. Lectures on Yoga. Arlington Heights, IL: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1972.

——. Living with the Himalayan Masters. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1978.

——. Path of Fire and Light. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1986.

——. A Practical Guide to Holistic Health. Honesdale, PA: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1978.

Rama, Swami, Rudolph Ballentine, and Swami Ajaya [Allan Weinstock]. Yoga and Psychotherapy. Glenview, IL: Himalayan Institute, 1976.

2218

Hindu Yoga Society

(Defunct)

The Hindu Yoga Society was begun in the 1920s by Sri Deva Ram Sukul (d. 1965), an Indian residing in Chicago. In 1927 he started Practical Yoga, a quarterly journal, and issued a ten-part course in what he termed "Yoga Navajivan." From his Chicago base he toured the United States lecturing. He later settled in California, where he incorporated his work as the Yoga Institute of America. The institute continued to function until Sukul's death. Among his disciples was actress Mae West.

Sri Sukul taught the various forms of yoga (hatha, bhakti, jnana, karma, and raja), following the teachings presented in the classic work by Patanjali but with a distinct emphasis upon raja yoga, with additional insights gleaned from tantra. He also taught students the subtle anatomy of the chakra system and the means to raise the "kundalini," the power believed to reside in latency at the base of the spine. The rise of the kundalini along the spine to the crown chakra at the top of the head brings enlightenment. Integral to Sri Sukul's tantric teachings was the Gayatri Mantram, which was believed to contain the sevenfold planes of vibration of the soul's ascent (corresponding to the seven chakras).

Sources:

Sukul, Sri Deva Ran. Yoga Navajivan. New York: Yoga Institute of America, 1947.

——. Yoga and Self-Culture. New York: Yoga Institute of America, 1947.

Thomas, Wendell. Hinduism Invades America. New York: Beacon Press, 1930.

2219

Hohm Community

PO Box 4272
Prescott, AZ 86302

Hohm Community, known as Hohm Sahaj Mandir since 1996, was founded in 1975 by Lee Lozowick, a former meditation instructor and businessman who experienced a spontaneous spiritual awakening after some years of intense spiritual discipline. This event left him in what he has described as an abiding condition of God-realization that subsequently led to his teaching work and the establishment of the formal guru-disciple relationship with a small group of students. Shortly after that, while traveling extensively in India, Lozowick met his spiritual teacher, Sri Yogi Ramsuratkumar (d. 2001), to whom he attributes his own awakening and who he calls the "source" of his teaching work. Since 1976 Lozowick has maintained a close and uniquely intimate relationship with Yogi Ramsuratkumar as his own guru, and visited him annually at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India.

Lozowick adheres to an Eastern form within the lineage of Yogi Ramsuratkumar and his master Swami Papa Ramdas, but also has called his school the Western Baul Way because of the deep resonance which his teaching and the sadhana (spiritual life) of his students have with the Bauls of Bengal, an obscure sect of musicians and mystics who practice a form of bhakti yoga called kaya sadhana, or realization through the body. The tenets of the Baul path are based on a blend of Sahajiya Buddhism and Vaishnava Hinduism; the Bauls typically encode their teaching in poems, song, and dance rather than in written texts or treatises and often travel about Bengali villages singing and chanting for alms.

The Western Bauls of the Hohm Community live a life of disciplined spiritual practice, with daily meditation, a vegetarian diet, exercise, and study of spiritual/classic literature and comparative religion recommended as foundation-level preparation in the school. Other recommended aspects of sadhana are: committed monogamous relationships, conscious (completely nonabusive and child-centered) child raising, and mutual respect between sexes. As Western Bauls the community has two bands–a rock & roll band called "Atilla the Hunza", and traditional blues group called "Shri"–both of which perform original music (lyrics by Lozowick) composed by his students on a professional basis.

Membership: The Holm Community maintains an ashram in Arizona and an ashram in central France. As of 2001 the Hohm Community includes about 150 members in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Lozowick travels extensively teaching and giving seminars and resides on the ashram in France four months out of the year and in Arizona the remainder of the year.

Periodicals: Tawagoto.

Sources:

A Basic Introduction of the Teachings and Practices of the Hohm Community. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Community, n.d.

Lozowick, Lee. Acting God. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Press, 1980.

——. Beyond Release. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, 1975.

——. Book of Unenlightenment. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Press, 1980.

——. The Cheating Buddah. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, 1980.

——. In the Fire. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, 1978.

——. Laughter of the Stones. Tabor, NJ: Hohm Press, n.d.

The Only Grace is Loving God. Prescott Valley, AZ: Hohm Press, 1984.

2220

Holy Shankaracharya Order

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Holy Shankaracharya Order had its beginning in 1968 when Swami Lakshmy Devyashram, a disciple of Swami Sivananda Saraswati, established the Sivananda Ashram of Yoga One Science. Through self-study and under Sivananda's spiritual inspiration, she found samadhi (a mystic state of altered consciousness) in 1963. In 1964, she had a vision of Swami Sivananda and was led by him to the Poconos. The guidance continued in the building of the retreat/camp. In 1969, she was ordained by Swami Swanandashram in the Holy Order of Sannyasa, Saraswati, the order in which Sivananda was ordained. In 1974, Swami Lakshmy was elected Mahamandaleshwari (Great Overlord) of the Holy Shankaracharya Order in the United States.

In 1974 property was purchased in Virginia and a second ashram-temple complex begun. It was dedicated in 1977. In 1978, from her superior in the Shankaracharya Order, Jagadguru Shankaracharya Abhinava Vidyateertha Maharaj, headquartered at Sringeri, the holy seat of the Order, she was requested to establish a shakti peetham (monastery), which was named Sri Rajarajeshwari Peetham. As the Swami gathered students around her, she ordained them, and they have become instructors in the various programs and activities. In the same year a Hindu Heritage Summer Camp was created. The response to this program led to the acceptance of the non-Indian, female swami by the Indian-American community.

In 1981, shortly before Swami Lakshmy died, Hindu priestly services were begun at the peetham. Swami Lakshmy was succeeded by Swami Saraswati Devyashram, one of her female students. Under her leadership the outreach to the Indian community has grown. A center has been opened in Tucson, Arizona, and a winter heritage camp initiated in 1982. Today, the Holy Shankacharya Order is a major traditional Saivite Hindu center. In 1983 Swami Saraswati Devyashram was initiated by the Jagadguru Shankaracharya at Sringeri. In 1984 it joined the ecumenical Council of Hindu Temples. It now provides a full range of temple services at the peetham in the Poconos.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Vedic Heritage Newsletter.

2221

Indo-American Yoga-Vedanta Society

330 W. 58th St., Apt. 11-J
New York, NY 10019

The Indo-American Yoga-Vedanta Society was founded in New York City by His Holiness Sri Swami Satchidananda Bua Ji (b. 1896), popularly known as Swami Bua Ji. Swami Bua Ji had been crippled at birth and, the doctors being unable to treat him, he was not expected to survive into adulthood. However, he was turned over to Sri Yogeswar Ji Maharaj, a teacher who worked with him using yoga and herbal treatments. At the end of this period, the youthful Swami Bua Ji emerged as both healthy and an accomplished yogi. For many years he was associated with the Divine Life Society founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

In the years after Indian independence (1948) he began to travel widely throughout Europe and North America giving popular demonstrations of yoga and allowing himself to become the subject of scientific investigations. In 1972 he settled in the United States and founded the Indo-American Vedanta Society.

Membership: Not reported. There is one center in the United States and several others in Europe and India.

2222

Integral Yoga International

℅ Satchidananda-Yogaville
Rte. 1, Box 1720
Buckingham, VA 23921

The Rev. Sri Swami Satchidananda, one of several disciples of Swami Sivananda Saraswati to carry his teaching around the world, founded the Integral Yoga Institute. Satchidananda, after years of spiritual seeking, met Swami Sivananda in 1947. In 1949, he was initiated as a sannyasin (monk) into a life of renunciation and selfless service, and was given his name, which means Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. Because of his mastery of all the branches of yoga he was given the title "Yogiraj," or master of yoga. After 17 years of work with Sivananda's Divine Life Society, he came to New York on an intended two-day visit, but was asked to stay to become the founder-director of the Integral Yoga Institute (IYI) and the spiritual head of Integral Yoga International.

The IYI teaches all aspects of Integral Yoga including Hatha Yoga, (to purify and strengthen the body and mind); Karma Yoga (selfless service): Bhakti Yoga (the path of love and devotion to God); Jnana Yoga (the path of wisdom); and Raja Yoga (the path of concentration and meditation).

Since 1975, Swami Satchidananda initiated disciples (both men and women) into the Holy Order of Sannyas. Sannyasins (monks) take the traditional vows to serve and to practice nonviolence toward all living beings. In 1980 the Integral Yoga Ministry was established. Integral Yoga ministers may be married or single; they take vows to live in the spirit of non-attachment, physical and mental purity, and obedience. In 1985, the headquarters of Integral Yoga International moved from the ashram in Connecticut to a new ashram in Virginia.

Sri Swami Satchidananda is known for his involvement in interfaith work. In 1986, at the Virginia ashram, the Light Of Truth Universal Shine (LOTUS) was dedicated to honor all the world religions. Here, people of all faiths can come to meditate and pray in the same place. A central column of light rises and divides into twelve rays to illuminate altars for individual faiths set within the petals of LOTUS. The LOTUS symbolizes the unity in diversity of all religions and reflects Satchidananda's teaching that "Truth is One–Paths are Many."

Membership: There is no formal membership in IYI. In 1997 it reported 23 centers in the United States and four in Canada headed by 60 monks and ministers worldwide. There were 11 affiliated centers in various foreign countries.

Periodicals: Integral Yoga Magazine. • IYI News. Send orders to 227 W. 13th St., New York, NY 10011.

Sources:

Bordow, Sita, et al. Sri Swami Satchidananda: Apostle of Peace. Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1986.

Satchidananda, Sri Swami. A Decade of Service. Pomfret Center, CT: Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, 1976.

——. The Healthy Vegetarian. Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1986.

Satchidananda, Swami. Integral Hatha Yoga. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

——. The Glory of Sannyasa. Pomfret, CT: Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, 1975.

Satchidananda, Swami, et al. Living Yoga. New York: An Interface Book, 1977.

Weiner, Sita. Swami Satchidananda. New York: Bantam Books, 1972.

2223

Intergalactic Culture Foundation

1569 Stonewood Ct.
San Pedro, CA 90732

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Sri Swami Shyam Paramahansa Ministry International, Enlightenment Connoisseur's Cozy Corner, Laxman Jhula 249302, Himalayas, India.

The Intergalactic Cultural Foundation was founded in 1981 in Los Angeles by Sri Swami Shyam Paramahansa Mahaprabho, an Indian spiritual teacher. Originally known as the Intergalactic Lovetrance Civilization Center, in 1986 the organization created four divisions, each of which assumed a Sanskrit name: Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma Foundation, Aiem Hrem Kleem Chamundayai Vichche Foundation, Aum Naham Parvati Pate Foundation, and Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay Foundation. Each of these divisions assisted aspirants from different intellectual and emotional backgrounds to attain the wisdom of Truth.

Sri Swami Shyam and the foundation have published more than 100 titles, 60 Lovetrance World journals, the India Experience Newspaper, the Journey Back in Time Correspondence Course, and more than 100 videos and 200 audio cassette tapes. Swamiji made annual lecture tours across the United States and in 1998 was responsible for planning the international Galactic Chronicles Lecture Tour. By 2002 Swamiji had produced 2,000 pages of his own Commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam, and 1,500 pages on Yoga Vasistha, Vivek Chudamani, and Upanishads. In addition, 70 audio Discourses on his Bhagavat Katha are available for order; several electronic books are available at no charge. The Internet address is http://www.swamishyam.org; the discourses may be heard on http://www.live365.com.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Hindu Digest. • Golden India Enlightenment Connoisseur's Newsletter.

Sources:

Paramahansa, Swami Prem. What Is ILCC?. Hawthorne, CA: Intergalatic Lovetrance Civilization Center, [1983].

Prem, Sri Swami. Galatic Chronicles Lecture Program. Harbor City, CA: Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay, 1995, 37 pp.

Swami Prem Paramahansa and His Message. Hawthorne, CA: Intergalatic Lovetrance Civilization Center, 1983.

Who Is Swami Prem Paramahansa Mahaprabho?. Hawthorne, CA: Intergalatic Lovetrance Civilization Center, [1982].

2224

International Babaji Kriya Yoga Sangam

595 W. Bedford Rd.
Imperial City, CA 92251

The International Babaji Yoga Sangam was founded in 1952 by Yogi S. A. A. Ramaiah. Yogi Ramaiah is the disciple of Kriya Babaji Nagaraj, the satguru of the order. Born and raised in Tamil, Nagaraj was initiated into Kriya Kundalini Pranayam by a sage named Agasthiya who resided at Kuttralam, India. He also traveled to Sri Lanka to study with another Siva Siddhanta teacher under whom he attained enlightenment. He eventually settled in the Himalayas, where he still lives. He has chosen to live quietly and allow his disciples to spread his teachings. The Babaji Yoga Sangam was founded under the guidance of Babaji Nagaraj. It is claimed that Nagaraj was born in 203 A.D. and lives on in defiance of the limitations of death.

Ramaiah became well-known in the early 1960s as a result of his submitting to a number of scientific tests in which he demonstrated his control over several body functions, including the ability to vary his body temperature over a fifteen-degree range. He brought the movement he had founded in India to America in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, fifteen centers had been opened across the country with headquarters in Norwalk, California. Sadhana centers, for more intense, live-in practice of kriya yoga, were established in several rural California locations. More recently the Yogi Ramaiah established the first shrine to Ayyappa Swami, a figure in the ancient Hindu holy books, the Puranas, in Imperial City, California. Each December, beginning in 1970, members of the sangam make a pilgrimage from the shrine, which also serves as the American headquarters of the group, to Mount Shasta, 800 miles away in the mountains of northern California.

Membership: Not reported.

Educational Facilities: KBYS Holistic Hospital and Colleges of Yoga Therapy and Physiotherapy, Konapet Road, Athanor, Puddukotta, District, Tamil Nadu, India.

Sources:

Ramaiah, Yogi S. A. A. Shasta Ayyappa Swami Yoga Pilgrimage. Imperial City, CA: Pan American Babaji Yoga Sangam, n.d.

2225

International Divine Realization Society

℅ Devavand Yoga Cultural Center
2285 Sedgwick Ave., No. 102
Bronx, NY 10468

The International Divine Realization Society was founded by H. H. Swami Guru Devanand Saraswati Ji Maharaj, a spiritual teacher from India. Swami Devanand teaches a form of jnana yoga which is practiced by a form of meditation with the use of a mantra. It is Swami Devanand's claim that the use of Mantra Yoga Meditation will give the practitioner a growth of goodwill and stability, improve memory and concentration, bring an awareness of the supreme Being, and eliminate psychiatric disorders. The Center in New York hosts a complete round of activities including meditation sessions, Sunday puja, haitha yoga classes, and special activities in stress management and natural medicine. Most programs are held in both English and Spanish.

Membership: Not reported.

2226

International Fellowship for the Realization of Impersonal Enlightenment

℅ World Center
PO Box 2360
Lenox, MA 01240

Formerly known as the Moksha Foundation (California) and was founded in the late 1980s by Andrew Cohen (b. 1955). Cohen had been raised in a somewhat secular Jewish home. As a teenager, following the death of his father, he moved to Rome to live with his mother. There, at the age of 16, he experienced an extraordinary event of expanded consciousness that initiated a quest in search of someone who could explain the strange occurrence. His search led him to Swami Hariharananda Giri (a master of kriya yoga) and to the practice of martial arts and Zen meditation. Then in 1986, while in India, he met Harivansh Lal Poonja, a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi and his teachings of advaita vedanta. Poonja taught that human beings are in reality pure consciousness in the absolute, here and now, always free. Since human beings are already free, there is no need to search for spiritual freedom, merely realize it.

Cohen felt he immediately understood Poonja's message and after only a short time with him, he left his presence to begin teaching, first in Lucknow, India, and then in England. Early in 1987 he taught classes in Holland and Israel and the following year returned to the United States. His work was centered upon a group that began to form in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1989 he moved his work to Marin County, California, where a group of his closest disciples established an intensive communal life that attempted to live out the implication of the freedom they have begun to realize. The group is informally known as the Sangha. The same year Cohen published his first book, My Master is My Self, a volume that includes his diary about meeting with and letters to his guru.

Meanwhile, some problems began to become apparent between himself and Poonjaji (the name used affectionately by Poonja's close followers). As Cohen began to teach, he had come to understand that the initial Enlightenment experience served to reveal the Absolute and gave the student a glimpse of his/her potential for liberation. The purpose of the community he formed was to learn to live in such a way that their lives express the Enlightenment. To the contrary, Poonjaji had taught that Oneness had nothing to do with anything manifested in human life. Cohen came to feel that he had surpassed his teacher, a realization he asserts in his second book, Autobiography of an Awakening (1992). He now teaches independently of Poonjaji.

The fellowship has an Internet site at http://andrewcohen.org.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Cohen, Andrew. Autobiography of an Awakening. Corte Madera: Moksha Foundation, 1992.

——. My Master is My Self. Moksha Foundation, 1989.

2227

International Meditation Institute

2542 Montclair Ave.
Montreal, PQ, Canada H4B 2J1

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Kullu, H.P. 175 101, Himalayas, India.

The International Meditation Institute grew out of the work of Swami Shyam (b. 1924). As a young man, he realized a state which he termed "Shyam Space", described as a state of pure existence and pure consciousness in which one drops one's identification with the world and identifies with the pure self. This is a form of what is generally termed advaita vedanta. The future Swami Shyam was a government career worker when he began to teach out of his experience. In the 1970s he was discovered by two Canadian tourists who invited him to Toronto. His brief visit was extended to more than a year after his papers were stolen, and when he finally returned to India, he had a group of Canadians with him. They gave him the unofficial title of Swami. Officially, the title "Yog Shromani" was added to the title of "Swami" by the President of India, Giani Zail Singh, in 1987.

From the original Western center in Montreal, other centers have been founded in Canada, the United States, Europe, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, and Taiwan.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Cushman, Anne, and Jerry Jones. From Here to Nirvana: The Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual India. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998. 399 pp.

2228

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)

℅ ISCKON International Ministry of Public Affairs
1030 Grand Ave.
San Diego, CA 92109

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is a major representative of that form of devotional Vaishnava Hinduism which grew out of the work of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534?), the famed Bengali saint. Chaitanya advocated a life of intense devotion centered upon the public chanting of the names of God, primarily through the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna/Hare Hare, Krishna Krishna/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama/Hare Hare, Rama Rama.

ISKCON developed out of the activity of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977). Prabhupada was a businessman. He was initiated into the revived Krishna Consciousness movement represented in the Guadiya Mission in 1932. In 1936 his guru told him to take Krishna worship to the West, but he was unable to fulfill his mission to spread the movement until the 1950s. In 1959 he took his vows for the renounced life in the sannyasin order. In 1965 he traveled to America where he established a movement to spread Krishna Consciousness. ISKCON was founded the following year in New York City. A magazine was begun and a San Francisco center opened in 1967. Besides leading the movement and serving as the initiating guru to the several thousands of adherents, Prabhupada was a prolific translator/ author. He produced two series of translations and commentaries on the main scriptures of Krishna Consciousness, The Srimad Bhagavatam and the Caitanya-caritamrita. His primary work, the one that most new members first encounter, was his translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, The Bhagavad-Gita As It Is.

The movement grew, though never in the great numbers that its media coverage often suggested. It was a frequent object of media coverage because of its colorful appearance and strange, exotic beliefs and practices. During the 1970s it became one of the major targets for the anti-cult movement.

The central thrust of ISKCON is bhakti yoga, which in this case takes the form of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. The chanting is the process for receiving the pure consciousness of God (thought of in his prime incarnations of Krishna and Rama) and dispelling the maya or illusion in which the world is immersed. Devotion also includes the following: service to the deity statues found in all Krishna temples; telok, markings of the body with clay in twelve places, each representing a name of God; kirtan, the public chanting and dancing to Krishna; and eating and distribution of prasadam, food (vegetarian) offered to Krishna. Devotees also study much traditional Hindu lore (Vedic culture), the history of bhakti yoga, and the writings of the founder.

As the society has spread, it has gained fame for its festivals and feasts. Each summer one or more international festivals featuring a mass parade honoring Lord Jagannath are held, and everyone is fed a vegetarian meal. Weekly feasts (open to the public) are part of the normal activity of the local temple.

Prior to Prabhupada's death, he appointed a 22-member governing body commission (GBC) which had begun to function in the early 1970s and provided a smooth transition of power in 1977. Included in the GBC were the initiating gurus, i.e., those within the movement with the power of initiating new disciples. The initiating gurus are looked to for maintaining high spiritual standards and inspiring others to do so. The GBC provides overall coordination and administrative oversight to the movement which is divided into a number of zones. The various zones are further divided into different corporations, each independent and autonomous under the management of local teachers and the zonal GBC. There is no longer any central headquarters, although in the major cities and in Vrindavan, India, ISKCON temples are international centers for the movement as the destinations of mass annual pilgrimages. The decentralization has led to the formation of a variety of publishing programs in the several zones.

During the 1980s, ISKCON was hit with a serious controversy between the more conservative elements and those advocating reforms. Crucial to the disagreements were varying opinions on the guru puja, the veneration of the guru, which had been an integral part of the daily morning ISKCON ritual while Prabhupada lived. Reform-minded gurus began to question the legitimacy of the current initiating gurus receiving guru puja, and began to discontinue it in their zones. Some of the call for reform came as a response to several gurus who had been disciplined for not living according to their vows. Most vocal in the cause of reform was Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, who authored a number of books on the subject. Most persistent in defending the guru puja was Kirtananda Swami Bhaktipada, head of the New Vrindavan community in West Virginia. This was one major issue in the 1987 excommunication of Bhaktipada and the reorganization of the temples under him into a separate organization.

Membership: In 1984 the movement reported 3,000 core community members and 250,000 lay constituents. There were 50 centers in the United States. There are 8,000 members worldwide. Centers can be found in 60 countries.

Periodicals: Back to Godhead. Send orders to Box 18928, Philadelphia, PA 19119-0428. • The ISKCON World Review. Send orders to 3764 Watseka Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034.

Remarks: In Hawaii, ISKCON experienced a temporary schism when a rival group under Sai Young emerged. Young's followers, known as the Haiku Meditation Center and Krishna Yoga Community, followed Bhaktivedanta's teachings but did not don the saffron robes or shave their heads. The group disbanded in 1971 and ISKCON inherited its members.

In 1983 a former member of the movement, Robin George, was awarded $9,700,000 in a lawsuit against the movement. This judgment (now being appealed) could, if sustained, seriously damage the movement in California, New Orleans, New York, and Canada (the temples under direct attack by the suit). Much of the future of the movement is contingent upon the outcome of this litigation.

Sources:

Gelberg, Steven, ed. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. New York: Grove Press, 1983.

Goswami, Satsvarupa dasa. Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. 6 vols. Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1980-83.

Judah, J. Stillson. Hare Krishna and the Counterculture. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974.

Knott, Kim. My Sweet Lord. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press, 1986.

Prabhupada, Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta. Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1972.

2229

International Society of Divine Love

℅ Barsana Dham
400 Barsana Rd.
Austin, TX 78737

The International Society of Divine Love was established in India in 1975 and America in 1981 by Swami H.D. Prakashanand Saraswati. Born in Ayodhya, India, he spent over 20 years in devotional seclusion in Braj, the birthplace of Krishn (who, according to the Hindu scriptures, the Gita and the Bhagwatam is the supreme personality of God). He is a Rasik Saint in the lineage of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1485–1533), the famous Saint of West Bengal who spread the raganuga (divine-love-consciousness or bhakti yoga) style of devotion associate with Radha Krishn.

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati teaches the path of God's love and the development of an affinity and personal feelings of love for the personal form of God, Radha Krishn. The devotional approach is explained in the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagvad Gita, and the Srimad Bhagwatam. It is centered upon the remembrance of Radha Krishn and chanting his name while devotionally offering one's emotional feeling to him.

During the 1990s, the society constructed a new temple and ashram complex in Austin, Texas, where the deity establishment of Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani was dedicated on October 8,1995.

Membership: The society has some 3,000 names on its followers' mailing list in the United States. It also has members in India, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore.

Sources:

The Deity Establishment Ceremony of Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani of Barsana Dham, October 7-8, 1995. Austin, TX: International Society of Divine Love, 1995.

——. Prakashanand Saraswati, H.D. The Path to God. Austin, TX: International Society of Divine Love, 1995.

——. The Philosophy of Diving Love. Auckland, NZ: International Society of Divine Love, 1982.

——. The Shikchashtek. Philadelphia, PA: International Society of Divine Love, 1986.

2230

Kali Mandir

℅ Kali Mandir Puja Shop
PO Box 4700
Laguna Beach, CA 92652-4700

Kali Mandir was formed to facilitate worship of the Divine Mother in the form of Kali and to make worship available to all. The worship is modeled on the teachings and practice of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi as established in the Dakshineswar Kali Temple in Calcutta, India. In adopting the Indian Hindu temple ideal, the leaders of the mandir are initially attempting to provide a place of worship for the seeker of God in the form of the Mother, especially in the form of Kali. Kali Mandir does not have a resident guru and is not based on any particular guru's teachings. Rather than seek to convert people away from previously held beliefs, the mandir simply welcomes all.

Future plans include the construction of a temple site in Laguna Beach, California. Each summer the mandir sponsors an annual Kali Puja in Laguna Beach, officiated by the priests from the Dakshineswar Kali Temple in India.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

http://www.kalimandie.org/.

2231

Kashi Church Foundation

11155 Roseland Rd., No. 10
Sebastian, FL 32958

The Kashi Church Foundation was founded by Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, a spiritual teacher who emerged as a result of an intense experience in the mid-1970s. She had been born Joyce Green into an orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn where she grew to adulthood. She married into a Roman Catholic family and settled into life as a housewife. Then in December 1972 she had a vision of someone whom she recognized as Jesus Christ. He subsequently reappeared three more times. Hesitantly at first, she turned for guidance to residents of a nearby Catholic seminary. Then in the spring of 1973 she had a second set of apparitions, this time of a person who called himself Nityananda.

As the apparitions began, she had no knowledge that such a person as Nityananda had actually lived. In fact, Swami Nityananda had been a prominent Hindu guru in India, had initiated a movement later headed by Swami Muktananda, and had an American disciple named Swami Rudrananda who initially brought his teachings to the United States. Nityananda, as he appeared to her, taught her about what he termed chidakash, the state in which love and awareness are one. He appeared to her almost daily for a year. He gave her a new name, Jaya (Sanskrit for "victory" or "glory"). Green, who began to call herself Joya Santanya, sought out Swami Rudrananda and shortly thereafter discovered Hilda Charlton, an independent spiritual teacher in Manhattan who encouraged her to become a teacher.

The final events in her transformation began on Good Friday 1974, when she began to bleed in a manner similar to Jesus' crucifixion wounds. On Easter Sunday morning, much to the consternation of her Roman Catholic in-law, she bled profusely from both her hands and forehead. The stigmata presaged a third set of apparations, which began a few months later. An older man wrapped in a blanket appeared and introduced himself as her guru, and she was especially drawn to him as he seemed to share her devotion to Jesus. She would later see a picture of someone identified to her as Neem Karoli Baba (who had died the year before). This person had been a prominent Indian spiritual teacher who had deeply influenced Baba Ram Dass, who in turn had first introduced American audiences to his teachings.

Through the mid-1970s, thirteen small communities that responded to Joya's teachings were founded. In July 1976 she moved to central Florida with a small group of disciples and founded Kashi Ashram. Over the next few years she regularly visited the several houses and expanded her teaching work to the West Coast. Then in 1978 she fell ill, and many thought she might die. Responding to her condition many of the people living in the cooperative houses moved to Florida. After she regained her health, the people decided to stay at what had become an expanded ashram.

Teachings. Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati teaches a form of Advaita Vendanta, the traditional monistic worldview derived from the Indian scriptures, the Vedas and the Upanishads. Vendata sees the diversity of the visible world and human experience dissolve in the perception of the Oneness of ultimate reality. This insight is common to mysticism and may be found in esoteric forms of the major faiths, thus provides a meeting ground for people of other faiths.

Residents at Kashi come from different backgrounds and are drawn more by their relationship to Ma as guru than the acceptance of any particular religious beliefs. They also bring varying foundations to the religions in which they were raised. No attempt is made to convert people; rather the individual's devotion to a particular religion is recognized and nurtured as one expression of the mystical unity. In this manner Kashi is following the tradition of Neem Karoli Baba who counted members of all the religions of India among his followers. Ma and members of the Ashram assumed a prominent role at the centennial Parliament of the World's Religions gathering in Chicago in 1993 as well as th recent Parliament of World's Religions meeting in 1999 in Capetown, South Africa and have been among those who arose to continue its work.

Through the 1990s Ma has developed an impressive ministry to people with AIDS and HIV-virus. Beginning with a small ministry in Los Angeles, southern Florida, New York, and Atlanta, the AIDS related work has become a dominant element of ashram life. Ma regularly invite terminal AIDS patients to spend the last weeks of their life at the respite home at the Ashram in Florida and enjoy the loving care it offers. The AIDS ministry, grew out of Anadana into the River Fund, the Ashram's community service organization which facilitates the participation of Kashi members in a variety of service projects in their community from delivering food for meals-on-wheels recipients to manning the local crisis hot line. As the Ashram's ministries have grown and diversified, Ma established the River Fund as Kashi International, devoted to helping people in need. The community also has shown particular concern for ministering to children and has created a quality school to serve both the children of residents and the neighborhood.

Organizations. Kashi headed and tied together by Ma. The Florida Ashram is organized on a semi-communal basis with each adult resident responsible for an equal share of the community's needed support. Most of the members hold jobs outside of the Ashram. Residents follow a vegetarian diet. Narcotics, alcohol, or tobacco are forbidden. Family life is encouraged and married couples live together though celibacy is practiced except when couples are trying to have a child.

Members of the community gather daily for puja (worship ceremony) in the morning and for darshan (gathering with Ma) in the evening. Various different religious festivals are celebrated, especially Christmas and the Durga Puja (a major Hindu festival). Above community spiritual life, each individual is encouraged to follow personal devotional activities. Some are active in local churches.

Membership: The community has grown to almost 200. There are Kashi Centers in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Chicago. Several hundred members regularly attend Ma's darshan sessions through its network of thousands of volunteers. The Kashi Foundation reaches, touches, feeds and serves a half million people world-wide annually.

Educational Facilities: Kashi Center for Advanced Spiritual Studies.

Sources:

Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. Bones and Ash. Sebastian, FL: Jaya Press, 1995.

——. The River. Roseland, FL: Ganga Press, 1994.

2232

Kirpalu Center for Yoga and Health

Box 793
Lenox, MA 01240

The Kirpalu Center for Yoga and Health was founded in 1966 as the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania by Amrit Desai who had learned yoga as a teenager in his native India. Desai came to the United States in 1960 and began teaching yoga while otherwise pursuing a secular career. In 1970, however, a significant moment in his developing work occurred as he was performing his daily yoga practices. He experienced a spontaneous flow of yoga postures in which the innate and autonomous intelligence of his body performed the postures without conscious or willful direction from his mind. Through repetition and study of his experience, he developed a technique by which others could experience the same spontaneous flow. He termed this new technique Kripalu yoga in honor of Swami Kripalvanandji, his yoga teacher in India.

In 1971 the first Kripalu residential community was established in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania, as a small retreat where Desai and his students could live the contemplative lifestyle. By 1974, the community had grown in number and became a non-profit organization known as the Kripalu Yoga Fellowship. In 1975 a retreat center was founded on a 370-acre plot near Summit Station, Pennsylvania, and approximately 170 residents moved into the new facilities. Then in 1983 the community moved to Shadowbrook, a former Jesuit novitiate in Lenox, Massachusetts. The ashram offered a full range of yoga and related programs and many teachers who trained there went forth to found affiliated yoga centers across the United States. By the mid-1990s there were some 2000 certified yoga teachers working in more than 130 affiliated support groups in North America and some 35 countries of Europe and Central America.

The work built around Yogi Desai was prospering. The 270 residents at the ashram in Lenox constituted the largest such yoga center in North America. Then in the fall of 1994 the center's board had to face the accusations of several women that Yogi Desai, who preached a celibate existence, had been forcing himself sexually upon them. In the face of the scandal, and following his admission of guilt, Desai was forced to resign as the spiritual director of the organization, which has since continued under the leadership of the centers board. The center's program continues in much the same format as in previous years, though life in the community is in a state of transition.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: The Kripalu Experience.

Remarks: Among other disciples of Swami Kripalvanandaji in the United States is Shanti Desai, brother of Yogi Amrit Desai, head of the Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat in New Jersey.

Sources:

Desai, Amrit. Guru and Disciple. Sumneytown, PA: Kripalu Yoga Ashram, 1975.

Gurudev, Sukanya Warren. The Life of Yogi Amrit Desai. Summit Station, PA: Kripalu Publications, 1982.

Kripalvanandji, Swami. Science of Meditation. Vadodara, Gujarat, India: Sri Dahyabhai Hirabhai Patel, 1977.

——. Premyatra. Summit Station, PA: Kripalu Yoga Fellowship, 1981.

MacDowell, Andie, and Isabella Rossellini. "Bad Karma." Boston 87, 12 (December 1995): 66–71, 78–92.

2233

Jean Klein Foundation

Box 2111
Santa Barbara, CA 93120

Jean Klein (d. 1998) was an Eastern European teacher of advaita, a teaching of nonduality. According to the advaita, our essential being or consciousness is beyond subject/object duality, beyond the thought process. In the year following the end of World War II, Klein, a musicologist and medical doctor, traveled to India on a spiritual quest. He had been stimulated to go to India by reading some of the writings of Rene Guenon. Within weeks he met a teacher who initiated him into the teachings of advaita vedanta, a teaching shared by such Indian teachers as Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Atmananda Krishna Menon. He returned to France in 1960 and held dialogues and yoga seminars. His first book, l'Ultimate Realite was published in France in 1968. His first book in English, Be Who Your Are, appeared in London, England, in 1978.

During the 1980s, Klein visited the United States for seminars and in 1989 he formed the Jean Klein Foundation to spread the teachings of advaita vedanta as presented by Klein. The foundation carries on an active teaching program through seminars held throughout the United States. Third Millennium Publications of Santa Barbara, California, is closely associated with the foundation and publishes Klein's books.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Listening, The Jean Klein Foundation Newsletter.

Sources:

Klein, Jean. Be Who Your Are. London, England: Watkins, 1978.

——. The Ease of Being. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1984.

——. I Am. Santa Barbara, CA: Third Millennium Publications, 1989.

2234

Krishna Samaj

(Defunct)

The Krishna Samaj was formed by Surendranath Mukerji (d.1914), better known by his religious name, Baba Premanand Bharati. Baba Bharati was among the first Hindu teachers to come to America, arriving in the United States around 1902 from Bengal. He was a student of Swami Brahmanand Bharati and follower of the Krishna Consciousness movement which had been revived in Bengal in the nineteenth century (and which became well known in America and the West in the 1970s through the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known as the Hare Krishna movement). The Krishna Consciousness movement originated with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534?), a bhakti (devotional) yogi, who spread the practice of repeating the Hare Krisha mantrum as the way to enlightenment and release from the wheel of karma and reincarnation.

Bharati, the nephew of a prominent Bengali judge, formed the Krishma Samaj in New York City and lectured to popular audiences in other eastern cities. He eventually moved to Los Angeles, where a temple was constructed and he had his greatest following. In 1909 he returned to India where, with a few of his American disciples, he opened a mission in Calcutta. The mission failed for lack of financial support, and he and his followers returned to America. He died in Calcutta in 1914. The temple dissolved in America soon after Bharati's death.

In the years immediately after his death, Bharati was attacked by people opposed to the growth of Hinduism in America, such as Elizabeth A. Reed, whose study of Bharati and the other early gurus was a significant factor in building public support for the Asian Exclusion Act passed in 1917. The strength and devotion of Bharati's disciples, however, kept his memory alive over the years. In the 1930s, members of the Order of Loving Service, a California metaphysical group, dedicated the book Square as follows: "To Baba Premanand Bharati, who by his love, patience, and continued watchfulness has led me out of darkness into Light, out of weariness into Rest, out of confusion into Understanding, out of continuous striving into Perfect Peace." In the 1970s, members of the AUM Temple of Universal Truth, founded in the 1920s, were reprinting Bharati's writings in their periodical and selling pictures of "Our Beloved Baba Bharati."

Sources:

Bharati, Baba Premanand. Krishna. New York: Krishna Samaj, 1904.

——. American Lectures. Calcutta: Indo-American Press, n.d. Farquhar, J. N. Modern Religious Movements in India. New York: Macmillan, 1915.

Lalita [Maud Lalita Johnson]. Square. Laguna Beach, CA: Order of Loving Service, 1934.

Reed, Elizabeth A. Hinduism in Europe and America. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1914.

2235

Krishnamurti Foundation of America

Box 1560O
Ojai, CA 93024-1560

The Krishnamurti Foundation of America was founded in 1969 to protect and disseminate the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, a spiritual teacher who emerged into prominence early in the twentieth century, and carried on a unique independent teaching mission until his death in 1986.

Krishnamurti was born May 12, 1895 at Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India into a Brahmin family. When he was fourteen years old he was designated by Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater of the Theosophical Society as the vehicle for the coming world teacher whose appearance they had come to expect in their lifetime. Besant adopted Krishnamurti and took him to England where she saw to his education and groomed him for his messianic role. In 1911 he was made head of a newly formed organization, the Order of the Star of the East and through the 1920s he traveled around the world speaking on its behalf.

In 1929, after several years of questioning himself and his role, he dissolved the order, repudiated its claims, and returned all of the assets given to him for its furtherance. Setting the perspective that would dominate his future, he declared, "Truth is a pathless land and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. My only concern is to set humanity absolutely, unconditionally free."

Renouncing any allegiance to caste, nationality, particular religion, or tradition, he spent the rest of his life traveling he world and lecturing until shortly before his death. He suggested that individuals had to free themselves from all fear, conditioning, authority, and dogma through self-knowledge, and that the gaining of such self-knowledge would result in order and psychological mutation. Only this psychological mutation by enough individuals, brought about by self-observation, not by a guru or organized religion, could transform the world. No social engineering would bring a world of goodness, love, and compassion.

His assertion that humans have to be their own guru and his rejection of all authority, including his own, attracted many people. A number of intellectuals and religious leaders engaged him in dialogue and scientists discussed the bridging of science and mystical thought with him.

Krishnamurti was optimistic about the possibilities of education that emphasized the integral cultivation of the mind and heart and not just the intellect. Such education would allow students to discover the conditioning that distorts their thinking. To this end, he led in the founding of many schools in the United States, Great Britain, and India. The Foundation of America supports the Oak Grove School in Ojai, California.

Krishnamurti also established foundations in those countries where support for his work was manifest. During his lifetime, the foundations provided a focus for his teaching work and assisted in the publication and dissemination of his teachings. In the years since his death their role of protecting and continuing the process of making his material available has come to the fore. Krishnamurtis lectures and dialogues became the sources of numerous books and booklets, and during the last year of his life his lectures were taped on both audio and video.

The Krishnamurti Foundation of America works cooperatively with other foundations around the world including: Krishnamurti Educational Centre of Canada, 538 Swanwick Rd., R. R. 1, Victoria, BC, Canada V9B 5T7; the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, Brockwood Park, Bramdean, Hants., UK SO24 0LQ; the Fundacion Krishnamurti Latinoamericana, ℅ Juan Colell, Apartado 5351, Barcelona 08080, Spain; and the Krishnamurti Foundation of India, Vasnata Vihar, 64/65 Greensway Road, Madras 600 028, India. The Krishnamurti Foundation of America houses a library and archives of Krishnamurtis talks and related materials.

Membership: In 1995 there were approximately 1,000 friends of the foundation who contribute to its work.

Periodicals: Newsletter.

Remarks: Recently, Krishnamurti died. The Foundation has announced that it will continue to facilitate the distribution of Krishnamurti's tapes and books and to channel suppport to Oak Grove School.

Sources:

Alcyone [Jiddu Krishnamurti]. At the Feet of the Master. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu. Commentaries on Living. 3 vols. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu, and David Bohm. The Ending of Time. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1985.

Lutyens, Mary. Krishnamurti, The Years of Awakening. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975.

——. Krishnamurti, The Years of Fulfillment. London: J. Murray, 1983.

2236

Kriya Yoga Centers

PO Box 924615
Homestead, FL 33092-4615

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Nimpur, PO Jagatpur, Cuttack 754021, Orissa, India.

The Kriya Yoga Centers were founded by Swami Hariharananda Giri, a teacher of kriya yoga from the same lineage as Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of Self-Realization Fellowship. Swami Yogananda was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar who settled in Puri in the state of Orissa, India, in 1906, and built an ashram (religious community). Yogananda succeeded Yukteswar as president of the ashram. He was succeeded in 1936 by Sreemat Swami Satyananda. In 1970 Satyananda was succeeded by Swami Hariharananda Giri (b. 1911), who had been associated with the ashram for many years. Hariharananda spread the work of the ashram through India, and in 1974 made his first trip to the West, to Switzerland. By the end of the decade he had several ashrams in Europe and in New York, New York. He continues to travel to the West periodically.

Kriya yoga is a technique imparted to disciples in initiation. It is based on breath control, which is believed to bring about God realization by turning attention from the outward to the inner self. It transforms the life force into divine force by magnetizing the psychic centers believed to exist along the human spine. The organization's web site is found at http://www.kriya.org.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Soul Culture: A Journal of Kriya Yoga, PO Box 9127, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.

Sources:

Hariharananda Giri, Swami. Isa Upanishad. Kriya Yoga Ashrams, 1985.

2237

Kriya Yoga Tantra Society

633 Post St., Ste. 647
San Francisco, CA 94109

Amid the larger movement of Hinduism to North America, tantric forms have also come and a noticeable tantric movement has emerged around a set of independent tantric teachers. Several have established organizations propagating tantra, among them the Kriya Yoga Tantra Society. The society was founded by Andre O. Rathel, better known by his spiritual name, Sunyata Saraswati. Sunyata was a student of martial arts, the occult, and tantra. He traveled to India, where he studied with Satyananda Saraswati, the most important of the modern tantric teachers at his Bihar School of Yoga in Bengal. In the early 1980s he founded Beyond Beyond in Los Angeles, California. The Kriya Yoga Tantra Society supersedes Beyond Beyond.

While he has studied with additional tantric teachers, as well as Chinese Taoist masters in Hong Kong, Sunyata believes the kriya tantra tradition to be the purest and most elevating. This tradition is ascribed to Babaji, the legendary Himalayan teacher who Swami Paramahansa Yogananda first introduced to the west in his kriya yoga teachings, though Yogananda did not emphasize the left-hand tantrism as has Sunyata.

According to the society, the goal of tantric practice is to generate intense sexual energy through tactile sensations and yogic practices. That energy (usually termed kundalini) is then transmitted to the brain and as the brain comes to life, the individual can perceive the Divine Order.

The society offers a wide variety of programs covering the range of tantric insight, and Sunyata travels the country giving workshops. Retreats are offered at a secluded center in Hawaii. He has also authored a basic text on the art of tantric union.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Jyoti.

Sources:

Rathel, Andre O., and Annette B. White. Tantra Yoga: The Sexual Path of Inner Joy and Cosmic Fulfillment. Hollywood, CA: Beyond Beyond, 1981.

Saraswati, Sunyata. Activating the Five Cosmic Energies. San Francisco: Kriya Jyoti Tantra Society, 1987.

——, and Bodhi Avinsha. The Jewel in the Lotus: The Art of Tantric Union. San Francisco: Kriya Jyoti Tantra Society, 1987.

2238

Kundalini Research Foundation

Box 2248
Darien, CT 06820

Gopi Krishna (1903-84) was a Hindu master of kundalini yoga. After seventeen years of meditation, he experienced the kundalini at the age of thirty-four. He spent the years since exploring the nature of kundalini and has produced fourteen books on the subject. In 1970, American Gene Kietter organized the Kundalini Research Foundation to disseminate Gopi Krishna's books and writings and to continue his research.

Kundalini is the name given the divine energy believed to be lodged at the base of the spine. Often pictured as a coiled snake, the awakened energy travels up the spine and remolds the brain. It is identified with prana, the nerve energy which effects altered states of consciousness. The awakened energy is the biological basis of genius. Kundalini, according to Krishna, is concentrated in the sex energy. Awakening the kundalini redirects the prana from the sexual regions to the brain. In the awakening, a fine biological "essence" rises from the reproductive region to the brain through the spinal column. The flow can be felt behind the palate from the middle point of the tongue to the root, and can be objectively measured.

Membership: The foundation is not a membership organization. There are affilated groups in India, Switzerland, and Canada.

Sources:

Irving, Darrel. Serpent of Fire: A Modern View of Kundalini. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 19954. 229 pp.

Krishna, Gopi. The Awakening of Kundalini. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1975.

——. The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

——. The Goal of Consciousness Research. Darien, CT: Friends of Gopi Krishna, 1998.

——. The Riddle of Consciousness. New York: Kundalini Research Foundation, 1976.

——. The Secret of Yoga. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

——. The Wonder of the Brain. Noroton Heights, CT: Kundalini Research Foundation, 1987.

——. Yoga, a Vision of Its Future. New Delhi, India: Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, 1978.

2239

Light of Sivananda-Valentina, Ashram of

3475 Royal Palm Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33140

The Ashram of the Light of Sivananda-Valentina was established in the early 1960s by Sivananda-Valentina, a guru whose name came from the experience of merging her consciousness with that of her teacher, Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963), the famous guru from Rishikish, India. Sivananda taught integral yoga, a combination of the several aspects of yoga with some attention to hatha yoga, the physical postures (or asanas) as preparation for the higher disciplines of yoga.

Sivananda-Valentina followed the integral yoga tradition, stressing particular aspects. For example, she emphasizes the mystical aspect of performing the yoga asanas which makes them more than a therapeutic exercise. She also concentrated on nada yoga, the yoga of sound, and the use of music, and the singing of bhajans (devotional songs) forms an important part of satsangs (student gatherings with their guru).

A weekly round of yoga and meditation classes, informal prayer classes, and Wednesday evening meditation were undergirded with periodic celebrations, many observed from those of the world's religions (Wesak, Christmas, Chanukah, etc.)

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

The Heart and Wisdom of Sivananda-Valentina. 5 vols. Miami Beach, FL: Light of Sivananda-Valentina, 1970-73.

Sivananda-Valentina. Meditations at Dawn. Miami Beach, FL: Light of Sivanada-Valentina, 1977.

Wings of Sivananda-Valentina. Miami Beach, FL: Ashram of the Light of Sivananda-Valentina, 1976.

2240

Lokanath Divine Life Fellowship

℅ Mr. Paul Juneja
211 Gunther Ln.
Belle Chase, LA 70037

Alternate Address: Lokanath Divine Life Mission, P-591 Purna Das Rd., Calcutta 700 029, India.

The Lokanath Divine Life Mission was founded in 1987 by Swami Shuddhananda (b. 1949), a swami who has become famous for his social service work in Calcutta, India. Frequently compared to Mother Teresa, he has led in the founding of a variety of schools and medical services, and a number of economic ventures aimed at improving the life of city residents. As a young man, he had had a series of visions of the nineteenth-century saint Baba Lokanath. In the meantime he had become a professor of business at Hyderabad University. He eventually quit his job, wandered in the Himalayas for several years, and then opened the mission, in which he combines the spiritual teaching with social outreach in a manner reminiscent of Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikish, the founder of the Divine Life Society.

In the 1990s, Swami Shuddhananda traveled to the United States to share his spirituality and information about his work in India. A small number of American disciples have begun to appear.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Cushman, Anne, and Jerry Jones. From here to Nirvana. New York: River-head Books, 1998. 399pp.

2241

Ma Yoga Shakti International Mission

114-41 Lefferts Blvd.
South Ozone, NY 11420

The Ma Yoga Shakti International Mission was founded in 1979 by Ma Yoga Shakti Saraswati, an educator, reformer, philosopher, renunciate, and guru, and by her followers considered primarily as a loving mother. Saraswati has traveled internationally and established centers in India, England, and the United States and now spends her time traveling between them. In her teachings, presented in a number of books she has written, she emphasizes the unity of bhakti, gyaan, karma, and raja yoga for self-unfoldment and the adaptability of the ancient wisdom to modern life. Her centers offer regular devotional services, and yoga and meditation classes, workshops, and retreats.

Membership: In 2002 the mission reported 900 members in the two centers in South Ozone, New York, and Palm Bay, Florida. There were five centers in India and one in London.

Periodicals: Yoga Shakti Mission Newsletter.

Sources:

Chetanaschakti, Guru. Guru Pushpanjali. Calcutta: Yogashakti Mission Trust, 1977.

Yogashakti, Ma. Yoog Vashishtha. Gondia, India: Yogashakti Mission, [1970]

Yogashakti Saraswati, Ma. Prayers & Poems from Mother's Heart. Melbourne, FL: Yogashakti Mission, 1976

—— trans. Shree Satya Narayana Vrata Katha. Melbourne, FL: Yogashakti Mission, n.d.

2242

Mahavidhya, Inc.

(Defunct)

Mahavidhya, Inc. was a small Hindu group which operated in the Midwest from the 1920s through the 1940s. Its leader was Mahasiddha Satchidananda, identified only as a master-teacher and a resident of Kansas City, Missouri. Little is known of the group, only a set of private lessons on The Mahavidya Philosophy having survived. The course consisted of 15 lessons on rejuvenation. In addition to a discussion of various points of Hindu philosophy, the lessons offered exercises for the student in breathing, nutrition, concentration, and psychic development.

Sources:

Satchidananda, Mahasiddha. Private Class Lessons in the Mahavidhya Philosophy. 5 vols. Kansas City, MO: The Author, 1945.

2243

Mata Amritanandamayi Center

10200 Crow Canyon Rd.
Castro Valley, CA 94552

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, Amritapuri P.O., Kollam DT., Kerala, India 690 525.

The Mata Amritanandamayi Center was established in 1987 as an outgrowth of the worldwide ministry of Mataji Amritanandamayi (b. 1953), an Indian spiritual teacher. A devoted worshipper of Krishna from childhood, at the age of seven she began to compose bhajans (devotional songs) to him. She so completely identified with God, that she was able to manifest any aspect or form of the Deity and would assume the mood of Krishna or Devi (the Divine Mother) in order to facilitate devotion. Gradually during the 1970s, people began to recognize Amritanandamayi as a realized (enlightened) soul and her father gave her the family land upon which to build an ashram (religious community). Since 1988, she has built a number of temples, called Brahmastanams or the Abode of the Absolute, in which four deities are installed as part of a single image representing the principle of the Unity of God.

Amritanandamayi teaches a form of bhakti, or devotional practice, built around her singing and meditation. She believes that all religions lead to the same goal; hence, meditation upon any of the prominent deity figures, including Jesus, is acceptable.

In 1987 Amritanandamayi made her first trip to the West, a trip prepared by a small number of Western devotees who had encountered her in India. She tours the U.S., Japan, and Australia.

The center has an Internet site at http://www.amntapuri.org.

Membership: In 1997 there were 30 centers in the United States and more than 100 worldwide. Centers may be found across the United States. Additional centers are found in Australia, India, Singapore, Canada, England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Middle East.

Periodicals: Immortal Bliss (Published in the U.S.). • Matruvani (Published in the U.S.).

Sources:

Amritanandamayi, Mataji. Awaken Children! 2 vols. Vallickavu, Kerala, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1989-90.

——. Bhajanamritam: Devotional Songs. Vallickavu, Kerala, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1987.

Balagopal. The Mother of Sweet Bliss. Vallickavu, Kerala, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1985.

"Holy Woman Brings the Mother Spirit to the West." Hinduism Today 9, no. 4 (July 1987): 1, 15.

2244

Matri Satsang

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Matri Satsang is an organization of devotees of Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), one of the most prominent gurus in twentieth-century India. Born Nirmala Sundari in a Bengali Brahmin family, she had little schooling and was married at the age of 13. Five years later she went to live with her husband. Her husband recognized her as an unusual person; as her mystical nature clearly emerged he became her disciple. Her ecstatic state attracted others, and in 1929 her followers built an ashram (religious community) for her. She began to travel widely around India. A second ashram was built at Dehradun, India, in 1932. As the number of ashrams grew, Shree Shree Anandamayee Sangha was formed to administer them.

Anandamayi Ma did not lecture, but would answer questions put to her by seekers. Her writings consisted mainly of letters answering similar inquiries. Excerpts were later gathered into books. Anandamayi Ma supported traditional Hinduism and had no new message. Disciples seem to have been attracted to her because of the awakenings they had in her presence and the wisdom they attributed to her because of her answers to their questions.

Matri Satsang began in 1974 in Sacramento, California, as a point of focus for North American disciples of Anandamayi Ma. A small group, they see their task as supplying the world with materials, primarily those published in India by the Sangha, that communicate Anandamayi Ma's presence through her words and the books of those who knew her. Devotees of Anandamayi Ma are scattered around the world.

Sources:

Anandamayi Ma, Sri. Matri Vani. 2 vols. Varnasi, India; Shree Shree Anandamayee Charitable Society, 1977.

——. Sad Vani. Calcutta, India: Shree Shree Anandamayee Charitable Society, 1981.

Lipski, Alexander. Life and Teachings of Sri Anandamayi Ma. Delhi, India: Motilal Banaridass, 1977.

Matri Darshan: Ein Photo-Album Uber Shri Ananda Ma. Seegarten, Germany: Mangalam Verlag S. Schang, 1983.

Singh, Khushwant. Gurus, Godmen, and Good People. New Delhi, India: Orient Longman, 1975.

2245

Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies

4130 SW 117th Ave., Ste. 171
Beaverton, OR 97005

The Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies was founded in 1987 by Kailasa Chandra Das (birth name, Mark Goodwin), formerly a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The league was established at a time of intense controversy within ISKCON over the role of the leadership status of those individuals who had been appointed initiating gurus by founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The league provides guidance for aspirants so they can come to a point of understanding about the nature of the guru (teacher, spiritual guide) and decide who might be a genuine guru. A bona fide guru must be a self-realized Vaishnava, i.e., a devotee of Vishnu, who has realized the Supreme Personality of Godhead, i.e., Krishna.

Members of the league are advised to avoid both the wild card guru, the charismatic figure whose own personality and personal attributes become the center of attention, and the institutional guru who derives authority from the group in which s/he functions and operates as an agent of the governing body of that institution. The genuine guru, of which Swami Prabhupada is the prime example, derives authority from God, and that authority is manifest in the purity of his/her life.

The league follows the beliefs and practices as transmitted by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Members must be vegetarians and do not use any intoxicating substances. They cannot be associated with ISKCON or gurus or groups that are considered bogus. Kailasa Chandra Das has published several booklets covering the major emphases of the league.

Membership: In 1995 the league reported nine members.

2246

Moksha Foundation

PO Box 2360
Lenox, MA 01240

The Moksha Foundation was founded in 1976 as the Self-Enlightenment Meditation Society by Bishwanath Singh, known by his religious name Tantracharya Nityananda. Nityananda began studying yoga at the age of seven. He became a student of Shri Anandamurti and eventually served as a monk with the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. In 1969 he realized that he was a siddha yogi in his previous incarnation and that he had been reincarnated in this life to teach meditation and yoga. He left the Ananda Marga Yoga Society and began independent work, eventually establishing centers in India and England. He also renounced his vows as a monk and married.

In 1973 Nityananda moved to Boulder, Colorado, and established the Self-Enlightenment Meditation Society. The center served as a residence for several of his closest students. He taught meditation, tantric yoga philosophy, and lathi, a martial art, and offered personal instruction and initiation for his followers. From his Colorado headquarters, he regularly journeyed to meet with students in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles.

In 1981 Nityananda traveled to Europe on a speaking tour. While on the Continent, he was invited to lecture in Sweden. After leaving the plane in Stockholm, he disappeared. His body was found several months later; he had been murdered. Mira Sussman, a resident student at the Boulder center, succeeded to leadership of the foundation and has continued the program initiated by Nityananda.

Membership: Not reported. At the time of Nityananda's death, he had approximately 50 students in Boulder, with other groups in several U.S. cities. The centers previously founded in London and in Bihar, India, continued, and he regularly visited them.

Periodicals: The Tantric Way.

2247

Mother Meera Society

℅ Meerama
26 Spruce Ln.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Mother Meera, Oberdorf 4a, D-6255 Dornburg-Thalheim, Germany.

The Mother Meera Society was founded in Canada in the early 1980s by disciples of Mother Meera, an Indian spiritual leader believed by followers to be an incarnation of the Divine Mother, one of several currently present on earth. She was born Kamala Reedy in 1960 in a small village in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. Her family were not religious people and she was given no religious training and had no guru. However, at the age of six she first entered that trance-like state called samadhi. When she was 14, her uncle and leading disciple, B. V. Reddy, noted her spiritual activities and took her to the ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Ponticherry. She told of receiving visionary guidance from Aurobindo and his colleague, the Mother. As might be expected, she was not accepted by many at the ashram and she left after a short stay and began holding darshan (sessions in which she met with her followers) throughout India.

In 1979 she left India with her uncle for Europe and a side trip to Canada, where the initial Mother Meera society was formed. In 1983, due to her uncle's illness, she settled in Thalheim, a small town near Frankfurt, Germany, where she has since resided. He uncle died in 1985. She made her first trip to the United States in May 1989 to attend a conference at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Mother Meera describes her work as that of the Cosmic Shakti, to bring down the light of Paramatma to prepare humanity for spiritual transformation. Not known for a specific body of teachings, disciples revere her for the transformations and healings they have experienced in her presence. She offers a simple discipline to people, "Remember the Divine in everything you do. If you have time, meditate. Offer everything to the Divine. Everything good or bad, pure or impure. This is the best and quickest way." Devotion to Mother Meera has especially spread through the writing of Andrew Harvey, a professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has written a book about his encounter with her in the late 1970s.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Adilakshmi. The Mother. 2nd edition. Thalheim Germany, N.p., 1995.

Brown, Mick. The Spiritual Tourist: A Personal Odyssey Through the Outer Reaches of Belief. London: Bloomsbury, 1998.

Cox, Christine, and Jeff Cox. "Germany's Meera." Hinduism Today. 11, 4 (April 1989): 1, 18.

Harvey, Andrew. Hidden Journey. New York: Henry Holy, 1991.

——. Harvey, Andrew. The Return of the Mother. Berkeley, CA: Frog, 1995.

Mother Meera. Answers. 2 vols. Ithaca, NY: Meeramma Publications Inc., 1991.

2248

Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust

℅ N.U. Yoga Ashram
W. 7041 Olmstead Rd.
Winter, WI 54869

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: N.U. Yoga Ashrama, Gylling, DK 8300 Odder, Denmark.

Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust was founded by Sri Swami Narayanananda (1929–88) in 1967 in Rishikesh, India. In 1929 he renounced the world, became a monk, and then went to the Himalayas in search of God-realization. After a mental struggle, he attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi (Cosmic Consciousness) in 1933. After this struggle, he remained in seclusion until 1947 when he witnessed the bloodshed between the Hindus and Muslims during the partition of India. He then focused his energies on writing books about religion, philosophy, mind-control, and Kundalini Shakti. He began to work and guide spiritual seekers during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1971 he went to Europe to visit his international headquarters in Denmark.

Narayanananda uses the term "The Universal Religion" for his teachings. This religion is based on his perception of Ultimate Truth and contains both philosophy and practical spiritual advice. It states that there is only one God, which can be comparred to the center of a circle, while the many different religions of the world are like the radii of a circle–all ultimately reaching the same goal. With its motto: "Help a man from where he stands. Supplement but never supplant," it embraces all people irrespective of caste, creed, color, or sex.

The Universal Religion stresses the importance of a moral life, sex sublimation, and mind-control for spiritual growth. It also emphasizes the value of an education, which combines practical, intellectual and ethical training, and it works to promote understanding between the different religions and ideologies of the world.

The religion is of a monastic order as well as lay diciples. The monks and nuns living in the same ashramas (monasteries) follow the teachings of the founder–they combine meditation and mind control with an active life in society, as well as, earn their own livelihood.

Membership: In 1998 the trust had approximately 30 centers in India, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the United States. There are approximately 5,000 members worldwide.

Periodicals: Yoga–Magazine for the Universal Religion.

Sources:

Narayanananda, Swami. The Mysteries of Man, Mind and Mind Functions. N.p., n.d.

——. A Practical Guide to Samadhi. Rishikish, India: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust, 1966.

——. The Primal Power in Man. Rishikish, India: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust, 1970.

——. The Secrets of Mind-Control. Rishikish, India: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust, 1970.

——. The Secrets of Prana, Pranayana, and Yoga-Asana. Gylling, Denmark: Narayanananda Universal Yoga Trust & Ashrama, 1979.

2249

New Vrindavan Community

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
R.D. 1, Box 319
Moundsville, WV 26041

This rural Hare Krishna Community was founded in 1968. One of its pioneering founders was Keith Ham, son of a Southern Baptist Minister; another was Howard Wheeler, a friend of Ham. They were among an initial group of young American spiritual seekers who encountered A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) in New York the late 1960s, after they had gone on a spiritual search to India. Prabhupada was beginning the task of establishing his worldwide mission. Believing that Prabhupada was genuine, the young Americans dedicated themselves to him. They received Vaisnava initiation from him, taking on the names Kirtananda Swami Bhaktipada and Hayagriva.

In 1968 Kirtananda noticed an advertisement offering a lease on 100 acres to anyone willing to start a spiritual commune in West Virginia. He ventured out to Moundsville, eventually signed a lease, and began New Vrindavan, which in turn became part of ISKCON, founded by Prabhupada.

After Prabhupada's departure to India in 1977, Kirtananda secured for himself a prominent role within the ranks of ISKCON. He was also the spiritual leader of New Vrindavan, by then a thriving community. The members of the community had turned an intended residence for Prabhupada into a memorial, attracting media coverage. Bhaktipada was New Vrindavan's de facto singular spiritual leader from the mid-1970s until the beginning of the 1990s, when legal difficulties caught up with him.

During the 1980s, several gurus were expelled and others resigned due to the organization's standards particularly in the area of illicit sexual relations and the use of psychedelic drugs. The tension led to demands for reform and the most intense debate centered upon the role of the guru in relation to Prabhupada. some members of the governing body commision (GBC) called for a more democratic structure, a lessening of the status of the guru visa-vis his disciples, and an end to the acceptance of guru puja (worship) by the current society leaders.

The debate on reform, largely confined within the GBC, became public in 1986 with the publication of the Guru Reform Notebook by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, which demanded reform of the society's understanding of the guru, especially the elimination of any practices which tended to place current guru's on the same level as Prabhupada (as demonstrated in their receiving guru puja). Bhaktipada quickly emerged as the major antagonist in the debate, arguing that organization and structure must remain as Prabhupada left them. The argument reached a culmination point on March 16, 1987, when GBC expelled him from ISKCON. The GBC cited four major reasons for the expulsion by claming that he:(1) had minimized the position of Phadhupada; (2) had rejected the authority of the GBC (thus destroying the society's unity); (3) had established temples in areas assigned to other gurus; (4) had, while acting independently of the society's authority, misrepresented the society to the public. Bhaktipada answered the charges by noting that he had been merely following the pattern of life established by Prabhupada and the particular mission to which he had been assigned. Futher he noted in his book, On His Order, an answer to the Satsvarupa, that it was the GBC which was guilty of deviating from Prabhupada's teachings through their reform movement and the re-editing of Prabhupada's commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita.

While Bhakipada was accusing ISKCON of deviating from the teachings and pattern of life established by Prabhupada, he was in turn accused of also deviating by his adoption of elements from the Christian tradition. He moved to have an organ installed in the temple at New Vrindavan and members of the community began to wear, at times, brown monk-like habits. ISKCON leaders have charged that these changes are far more drastic than those which they have been accused of making.

Except for the issues mentioned above, including those which led to Bhaktipada's expulsion from the society, New Vrindavan and its subsidiary temples follow the same pattern of worship and belief as for the temples and centers of ISKCON. In the wake of the expulsion, New Vrindavan and its aligned centers (mostly in Ohio), having been founded originally as a separate corporation, merely reorganized as an independent entity under its corporate name, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of West Virginia. Almost immediately, leaders from New Vrindavan were sent out to found new centers in such places as Philadelphia and New York City.

The year of Bhaktipadas leadership of the independent ISKCON of West Virginia were one of intense controversy. He tried to exert leadership in the interfaith community and initially attracted a number of people to New Vrindavan from various religious communities. He also initiated plans for the creation of large community on the ISKCON property. However, he was continually distracted by controversy. Shortly after his expulsion from ISKCON, authorities raided the community searching for evidence of supportive of allegations of fraudulent fund raising and information on the death of a former resident, Charles St. Dennis, killed in 1983, and in the 1986 murder of vocal critic, Stephen Bryant. Earlier in 1985, he was almost killed when a former devotee attacked him.

A variety of court actions followed including his being found not guilty in a trial for arson of a building to collect insurance, and a follower, Thomas Dreshner, being found guilty in connection with the murder of St. Dennis. Finally, on August 28, 1996, Bhaktipada pled guilty to a racketeering charge that included conspiracy to murder (Stephen Bryant). Dreshner, who had denied Bhaktipada's involvement in any illegal acts, eventually turned and offered testimony against him. Bhaktipada began serving a 20-year prison term in September 1996, a sentence more recently reduced to 12 years. In the wake of his conviction, as well as revelation of his breaking his vows of sexual abstinence, there was a move to integrate ISKCON of West Virginia back to the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.

In 2000 the community was accepted again as part of the ISKCON and allowed representation in the worldwide leadership council. New Vrindavan's current management is attempting to reintegrate the community into the global Hare Krishna network while working to rectify illegal activities and other mistakes of Bhaktipada's leadership. Present residents prefer to focus on the primary role that Swami Prabhupada played in bringing Krishna Consciousness from India to the West.

The reputation that New Vrindavan had enjoyed of being the first farming community in ISKCON has yielded to the community's function as a place of a spiritual holiday among the community of Indian immigrants to the United States. The community claims to host more overnight staying guests than all the other temples in North America. A primary draw is the memorial to Swami Prabhupada, referred to as "The Palace of Gold." Replacing the previous central communal ownership of all property is a more natural system of individual or family ownership.

The community celebrates many festivals that are a distinct feature of India's 5,000-year-old culture. The community's festivals provide vegetarian feasts for which Hare Krishnas are famous; the community does not allow alcohol, tobacco, or non-vegetarian foods.

Membership: The community extends various categories of membership to persons not resident at New Vrindavan. Most contributing members are Indian professionals and businesspeople. There are approximately 7,000 individuals on the community mailing list.

Periodicals: New Vrindavan Today.

Remarks: Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada and New Vrindavan have been the object of intense controvery which began in the early 1980s when charges of drug dealing and the stockpiling of weapons were published in newspapers and magazines across the United States. In October 1985, a fringe member of the society attempted to murder Bhaktipada with a lead bar. Then in 1986 a former member, Stephen Bryant, came to West Virginia and threatened his's life. In May, Bryant was murdered in Los Angeles. Following Bryant's murder, the local sheriff called for a federal probe of New Vrindavan. It was convened in September 1986, just a few weeks before two ex-members Daniel Reed and Thomas Dreshner, went on trial for the murder of a man who raped Reed's wife. Both ex-members were convicted. Reed was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter and he received one to five years. Dreshner, an accessory after the fact (he assisted Reed in burying the body), was given a life sentence. Later Dreshner was accepted back as a full member by Bhaktipada who accepted him into the renounced or sanyassin order. Subsequently, Dreshner has frequently but incorrectly been cited in the press as a swami (teacher) and spokesperson for the group.

As a result of the federal investigation, Bhaktipada was indicted for setting fire to a building owned by the group in order to collect the insurance. At a trial in December 1987, he was acquitted of all charges.

Embarrassed by the events at New Vrindavan, the GBC included the accusations and subsequent federal probe as a secondary reason for his expulsion.

Sources:

Bhaktipada, Kirtanananda Swami. Christ and Krishna. Moundsville, WV: Bhaktipada Books, 1985.

——. Eternal Love. Moundsville, WV: Bhaktipada Books, 1985.

——. "A Community Struggles for Reinstatement." Hare Krishna World 5,5. (Jan/Feb.1997).

——. On His Order. Moundsville, WV: Bhakti Books, 1987.

——. The Song of God. Moundsville, WV: Bhaktipada Books, 1984. Shinn, Larry D. The Dark Lord. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1987.

2250

Nityananda Institute, Inc.

PO Box 13310
Portland, OR 97213

Swami Rudrananda (1928-1973), born Albert Rudolph, was a spiritual seeker who had participated in groups following the methods of Georgei Gurdjieff and Subud, and later with the shankaracharya of Puri, prior to traveling to India. There, in 1958, he met Swami Nityananda (d. 1961) and his student Swami Muktananda (1908-1982). In these two swamis he found an end to his quest. He also arranged Muktananda's first visit to America in 1970 and helped launch his movement. However, after studying first with Nityananda and later with Muktananda for fifteen years, he broke with Muktananda in 1971 and founded the Shree Gurudev Rudrananda Yoga Ashram. The teachings followed essentially the Saivite teachings of Nityananda and Muktananda, both of whom emphasized the role of the guru who gave shaktipat to awaken the kundalini. Kundalini is the cosmic power believed to be resting dormant like a coiled snake at the base of the spine. Its awakening allows the power to travel up the spine to the crown of the head, thus producing enlightenment.

Rudrananda founded a string of ashrams across the United States and Europe and wrote one book, Spiritual Cannibalism, published within months of his death in an airplane accident. The largest and most substantial remnant of Rudrananda's following was organized under Swami Chetanananda, head of the ashram in Bloomington, Indiana in 1973. Several years later Chetanananda moved his headquarters to Cambridge, Masasachusetts, and in 1993 to Portland, Oregon.

The ashram is a community of disciples living the practical spiritual life under the direction of Swami Chetanandanda. The Nityananda Institute is a meditation center whose aim is to make the spiritual life accessible to westerners. The Rudra Press is the publishing arm of the organization.

Membership: There are six centers. In 2002 there were approximately 2,000 people involved with the Ashram in Oregon, the center in Massachusetts, New York City, Santa Monica, California, Kathmendu, Nepal and Oslo, Norway.

Educational Facilities: Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal.

Periodicals: Rudra. • Institute News.

Sources:

Chetanananda, Swami. Songs from the Center of the Well. Cambridge, MA: Rudra Press, 1983.

Hatengdi, M.U. Nityananda, the Divine Presence. Cambridge, MA: Rudra Press, 1984.

Hatengdi, M.U., and Swami Chetanananda. Nitya Sutras. Cambridge, MA: Rudra Press, 1985.

Nevai, Lucia. "Rudi, The Spiritual Legacy of an American Original." Yoga Journal no. 65 (July/August 1985): 36-38, 68-71.

Rudrananda, Swami. Spiritual Cannibalism. New York: Links, 1973.

2251

Para-Vidya Center

(Defunct)

The Para-Vidya Center was founded in Los Angeles, California, in the 1930s by Rishi Krishnananda who migrated to America around 1920, just prior to the United States ending immigration from India with Asian exclusion legislation. He taught small numbers of students for a number of years and opened a center in Los Angeles prior to World War II. The center was later relocated to New York City.

Krishnananda tried to adapt the Hindu teachings to a Western audience without losing their essence in the translation. While teaching hatha yoga postures, he also tried to communicate the complete system of yoga as contained in the Upanishads, the Hindu holy books. The goal of life is seen as self-realization, beginning with a consciousness awareness of the Universal Life Principle (i.e., God) which animates life and ending in an union with the Principle. A process of controlled breathing (pranayana) and a vegetarian diet was recommended.

There is no indication of how long the center lasted after its move to New York.

Sources:

Krishnananda, Rishi. The Mystery of Breath. New York: Para-Vidya Center, n.d.

——. Yoga Science of Eating. Los Angeles: Para-Vidya Center, 1941.

Nivenanda, Darha. Strange Journey. Los Angeles: Para-Vidya Center, 1941.

2252

Prana Yoga Ashram

℅ Swami Sivalingam
International Headquarters
1723 Alcatraz Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94703

The Prana Yoga Student Center was founded by Swami Sivalingam a former in hatha yoga at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy established at Rishikish on the Ganges River by Swami Sivananda Saraswati. Sivalingam began his stay at Sivananda's center in 1959. In 1962 he began his international work by bringing the yoga teachings first to Japan and then in Hong Kong, where he established several Sivananda Yoga Centers. He moved to the United States in 1973 and successively founded the Prana Yoga Foundation (1974), the Prana Yoga Ashram (1975), the Prana Yoga Center (1976), and the Ayaodhyanagar Retreat (1977). In 1975 he extended his work to Vancouver, British Columbia. As a result of this work and subsequent travels, he has established a string of centers which ring the globe from India to Japan, to North America to Denmark and Spain.

Sivalingam follows the yogic teachings and practices of Sivananda with an emphasis upon hatha yoga asanas (position) and the practice of pranayama (precise breath control). Through this practice, prana, or energy, is manifested and controlled and leads to purification of the nervous system and inner spiritual balance.

Membership: Not reported. In 1980 there were six centers in the United States and nine centers in other countries.

Periodicals: Prana Yoga Life. Send orders to Box 1037, Berkeley, CA 94701.

Sources:

Sivalingam, Swami. Wings of Divine Wisdom. Berkeley, CA: Prana Yoga Ashram, 1977.

2253

Raj-Yoga Math and Retreat

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Raj-Yoga Math and Retreat is a small monastic community formed in 1974 by Fr. Satchakrananda Bodhisattvaguru. Satchakrananda began the practice when he experienced the raising of the kundalini, an internal energy pictured in Hindu thought as a snake coiled and resting at the base of the spine that, upon awakening, rises to the crown chakra (psychic center at the top of the head). That event produced an awareness of Satchakrananda's divine heritage. Following that event, he spent a short time in a Trappist monastery, attended Western Washington University, then became coordinator for the Northwest Free University, where he taught yoga. in the early 1970s.

In 1973 Satchakrananda was "mystically" initiated as a yogi by the late Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963), the founder of the Divine Life Society, through a trilogy of "female Matas" at a retreat he attended on the Olympic (Washington) Peninsula. The following year, with a small group of men and women, he founded the math (monastery). In 1977, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Herman Adrian Spruit of the Church of Antioch (see separate entry) and has attempted to use both Hindu and Christian traditions at the math. Spiritual disciplines include the regular celebrations of the mass, though the major practice offered is the Jaya Yoga Sadhana, consisting of the sucessive practice of japa (mantra) yoga, meditation, kriyas (cleansings), mudras, asanas (hatha yoga postures), and pranayam (disciplined breathing). Jaya yoga allows practitioners to become aware of their divine nature.

The math is located in the foothills of Mt. Baker overlooking the Nooksuck River near Deming, Washington. It accepts resident students for individual instruction, but offers a variety of retreats/ workshops for nonresidents. For those unable to travel to the math for instruction, Satchakrananda has put together a jaya yoga workshop packet.

Membership: The resident community at the math fluctuates between two and twelve. Several hundred individuals are associated with the math through an oblate order of men and women.

Sources:

Letters to Satchakrananda. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1977.

Satchakrananda, Yogi. Coming and Going, The Mother's Drama. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1975.

——. Thomas Merton's Dharma. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1986.

——. To Create No Freedom. Deming, WA: Raj-Yoga Math & Retreat, 1983.

2254

Real Yoga Society

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Real Yoga Society was founded in 1973 by Swami Shiva, a high-caste Hindu teacher from Calcutta, India. In India he had been the editor of a magazine, Atma-Darshan (Self-Realization) and a popular speaker on yoga. He was invited to the United States by Dr. J. M. Patel, an Indian-American resident of Chicago, and he began the society shortly after his arrival. A master of hatha yoga, Swami Shiva also taught all of the main forms of yoga–raja, karma, jnana, and bhakti. Yoga is seen as a means to self-realization and enlightenment.

The society florished in the late 1970s, and had centers in Chicago, Oak Park, and Wheaton, Illinois. The society has not been located in the 1980s and its current status is unknown.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Shiva, Swami. Dawn of Life Through Yoga. Oak Park, IL: Real Yoga Society, 1975.

2255

S. A. I. Foundation

14849 Lull St.
Van Nuys, CA 91405

All religions have had their miracle workers, but Satya Sai Baba (b. 1926) is certainly the most outstanding in India today. The first miracle related to Sai Baba concerned a mysterious cobra found under his bed, proclaiming, say his followers, Sai Baba's role as Sheshiasa, Lord of Serpents. As a child he worked miracles for his classmates, producing objects out of nowhere, a favorite practice still continued.

In 1940, he fell into a coma which lasted for two months. Upon awakening suddenly, he announced, "I am Sai Baba of Shirdi." Sai Baba of Shirdi (1856?-1918) was an Indian holy man who had left behind a large following who still venerated him and observed his teachings. Satya Sai Baba, by his statement, claimed to be his reincarnation. Followers assert his ability to recall conversations between individuals who were disciples of the original Sai Baba.

The thrust of the Sai Baba movement is veneration of Sai Baba and recounting the miracle stories about him. Teachings are mainline Hinduism with emphasis on four aspects-Dharma Sthapana (establishing the faith on a firm foundation), Vidwathposhana (fostering scholarship), Vedasamrakshana (preservation of the Vedas) and Bhaktirakshana (protection of the devotees from secularism and materialism).

The Indian headquarters in Prasanthi Nilayam (Home of the Supreme Peace) are the focus of the Sai Baba movement. Here each Thursday devotees gather for a darshan or vision of Sai Baba. Special darshans are held during the Dasara holidays in October and his birthday celebration in November.

Interest in Sai Baba in America began with a set of lectures given in 1967 at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Movies of Prasanthi Nilayam were shown by Indra Devi, who had recently visited Sai Baba. The movement spread during the 1970s and groups have formed across the United States.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Sathya Sai Newsletter. Send orders to 1800 E. Garvey Ave., West Covina, CA 91791.

Sources:

Brooks, Tal. Avatar of Night. New Delhi, India: Tarang Paperbacks, 1984.

Hislop, John. Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba. San Diego: Birth Day Publishing Company, 1978.

Lessons for Study Circle. Prasanti Nilayam, India: World Council of Sri Sathya Sai Organizations, n.d.

Manual of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Dal and Guidelines for Activities. Bombay: World Council of Sri Sathya Sai Organizations, 1979.

McMartin, Grace T., ed. A Recapitulation of Sathya Sai Baba's Divine Teachings. Hyderabad, India: Avon Printing Works, 1982.

Murphet, Howard. Sai Baba, Man of Miracles. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1976.

Sandweiss, Samuel H. Sai Baba, The Holy Man…and the Psychiatrist. San Diego, CA: Birth Day Publishing Company, 1975.

2256

Saccha Dham Ashram

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address: International Center: ℅ Swami Middha Ji, Tapovan Sari, Tehri-Garhwal 249 192, India.

Saccha Dham Ashram was founded by Maharajji Hans Raj Swami (b. 1924), an advaita vedanta teacher. As a guru, like Ramana Maharshi, he gives few verbal teachings, inviting devotees merely to sit in his presence instead. In the silence they can surrender to the unconditional love of the guru and contact the limitless love of Being itself. The reality of Maharaj, as he is usually referred to by his disciples, was brought to the West in the early 1990s by Shantimayi (b. 1950), an American woman who discovered him and sat at his feet for seven years. These sessions were usually accompanied with a period of chanting and the singing of bhajans (holy songs). She was sent to the West as Maharaj's spiritual ambassador, and as a result a number of Europeans and Americans began to find their way to the Indian ashram, and from their visits a community of disciples have begun to appear in the West. These remain small, as the essence of the devotion is sitting in the presence of the guru which can only be done at the ashram in India.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Cushman, Anne, and Jerry Jones. From Here to Nirvana: The Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual India. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998. 399 pp.

2257

Sadhana Ashram

181 Hicks Rd.
Nashville, TN 37221

The Sadhana Ashram dates to 1981 and a vision of the Divine Mother to Shankar Das, an American yogi. Shankar Das spent several years in India as a seeker and many of the teachers he met encouraged him to establish an ashram. The Divine Mother told him, "Today I will reveal to you the ashram property." Later that day the farm upon which the ashram now rests was purchased.

Shankar Das teaches an eclectic spiritual perspective drawn from the variety of religious perspectives available in India. He acknowledges inspiration from Sai Baba, Swami Muktananda, Sri Ramakrishna, and Sri Anandamayi Ma, and has concluded that "Many are the Ways," and that any aspect of God represents all aspects. Shankar Das operates as a Mahashakti yoga master and practices shaktipat, the stimulation of the kundalini energy believed to lie dormant at the base of the spine of his followers. When awakened, the kundalini travels upward along the spinal column and brings enlightenment.

Daily life at the ashram begins early in the morning with chanting, meditation, and shaktipat. Sunday is dedicated to the Divine Mother (often seen as synonymous with the kundalini energy), and often includes a fire ceremony (yajna) and feast. During weekdays, residents scatter to secular jobs in the area, but begin and end the day in spiritual activity. Food is vegetarian. The group's web site is at http://www.sadhanaashram.org.

Membership: Not reported.

2258

Saeejis Temple of Peace

5627 Lexington Ave., No. 6
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Saeejis Temple of Peace is a small Hindu organization founded in Los Angeles in 1977 by Govindram T. Lathi. Lathi, an Indian-American teacher, is known by his followers as Gurudev Saeeji, or simply, Saeeji. It is the goal of Saeeji to address the need of modern individuals left without fulfillment in the fast moving technological social world. He offers prayer, meditation, and yoga as the solution to their need.

While a small organization, Saeeji has developed plans for a large retreat center in southern California that will offer the same spiritual atmosphere available at the sacred spots of India.

Membership: Not reported.

2259

Sahaja Yoga Center

13659 Victory Blvd., Ste. 684
Van Nuys, CA 91401

Alternate Address: 56 Cedars Ave., Walthamstow, London E17 7QN, England.

Among the fastest growing Eastern movements in the West is the Sahaja Yoga teachings as given by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Born in 1923 into a Christian family in India, she is currently the wife of the retired secretary general of the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations.

Devi's career as a guru grew from her disappointment with some of the other gurus who had come to the West from India. She knew she was born a realized soul, but she sought a means to bring realization to masses of people. In her frustration, on the evening of May 5, 1970, she sat all evening under a bilva tree. During this time her crown chakra (believed to be at the top of the head) opened and the kundalini force (the cosmic power believed to be resting like a coiled snake at the base of the spine) began to rise. She then felt ready to begin her work.

Nirmala Devi is believed to be connected with the power of the Life Source. She offers self-realization as the starting point of the spiritual life instead of as the end and goal of the practice of yoga or austerities. When one experiences self-realization, the kundalini energy rises. In her personal appearances Devi attempts to bring self-realization to her audiences. She also offers a meditation technique for those unable to be physically present. The meditation is done before one of her pictures.

From centers in Delhi, India, and London, England, Sahaja Yoga spread, especially in the 1980s. It came to North America in the mid-1980s. Centers have been opened across the United States, and in Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada. In 1989 Devi made her first trip to Russia and Eastern Europe.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Nirmala Yoga. Send orders to 43, Banglow Rd., Delhi 110007, India.

Sources:

Nirmala Devi, Shri Mataji. Sahaja Yoga. Delhi, India: Nirmala Yoga, 1982.

"The Russians' Love for Yoga: Nirmala Devi Shares Her Adventure." Hinduism Today 12, no. 10 (October 1990): 1, 7.

2260

Saiva Siddhanta Church

107 Kaholalete
Kapaa, HI 96745

The Saiva Siddhanta Church, originally known as the Subramuniya Yoga Order, was founded by Master Subramuniy (1927-2001), a native of California who traveled to Sri Lanka and in 1949 was initiated by a guru Jnaniguru Yaganathan, more popularly known as Siva Yogaswami. He returned to the United States and spent some years following his sadhana (spiritual discipline). Then in 1957 he founded the Subramuniya Yoga Order and opened the Christian Yoga Church in San Francisco. He founded a periodical, Christian Yoga World, developed a radio program, the "Christian Yoga Hour," and wrote a correspondence course. Other centers were founded in Redwood City, California, and Reno, Nevada, and an ashram was opened in Virginia City, Nevada. During the 1960s, all remnants of Christianity, which had earlier been woven into his teachings, were deleted as the Saivite Hinduism of Subramuniya's guru became dominant The Subramuniya Yoga Order became known as the Wailua University of Contemporary Arts, in 1973 as the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order, and in the late 1970s as the Saiva Siddhanta Church.

Teachings of the church derive from the ancient Saivite scriptures, the Vedas: the Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva. They also use the Saiva Agamas (the authoritative practical scripture of Saivism), and the Tirumantiram, written by Saint Tirumulkar approximately 2,000 years ago. The latter volume is written in Tamil (not Sanskrit) and is a summary of Saivism. The teachings have been passed through a lineage of teachers (the Siva Yogaswami Guru Paramparai) to Yogaswami and Subramuniya, and since November 12, 2001, to the present successor, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswani.

The church is built around the worship of Siva, known as the only Absolute Reality, both immanent and transcendent. Siva is worshipped under the forms of the Siva Lingam, Ardhanarisava (as Siva/Sakti in whom all apparent opposites are reconciled), and Nataraja, the Divine Dancer. Siva created the other deities and the human soul, but not the essence of the soul, which is eternally one with God. This essence is the timeless, formless, spaceless Self–Parasivam. Realization of this Self is the ultimate goal of existence. Dharma is Siva's divine law that governs creation.

The soul is immortal but veiled by the bonds of ignorance (anava), consequences of thoughts and deeds (karma), and illusions of matter (maya). In order to continue its spiritual evolution the soul periodically reincarnates in a physical body. It is the human task to follow the established dharma (pattern) in his/her personal and social life. Good conduct, as summarized in the yamas and niyamas of classical yoga, is also encouraged. The communal life of Saivites is centered in the temples of Siva, considered the abode of the deity. Such a temple has been constructed in Hawaii on 458 acres of land, which also houses the church's headquarters. Here puja, the invocation of Siva and the other deities and an expression of love for Siva, is offered daily. Most homes also have a home shrine where the deity is invoked.

The church is headed by Bodhinatha and the Saiva Swami Sangam, the ordained priesthood of 15 swamis who all live at the Hawaiian monastery. Swamis train for 12 years before qualifying to join the order of sannyas by taking lifetime vows of poverty, purity (chastity), renunciation, confidence, and obedience.

In 1970 land was purchased in Hawaii on the island of Kauai for a temple and headquarters complex, which also houses the theological seminary. One education facility, the Himalayan Academy, distributes the San Marga Master Course, a correspondence course for new and prospective members, as well as the academy's periodical, Hinduism Today. In 1994 the Hindu Heritage Endowment was created to support Hindu institutions and projects worldwide. In 2002 it held funds in excess of $4 million.

A daily chronicle of the church's activities is available at http://www.gurudeva.org.

Membership: In 2002 the church reported 700 tithing families as members, 7,000 students with various levels of commitment, and 125,000 readers of their magazine. There were 32 missions in eight countries: the United States, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, and Germany.

Educational Facilities: Himalayan Academy.

Periodicals: Hinduism Today.

Sources:

Saiva Dharma Shastras. Kappa, HI: Siddhanta Press, 1986.

Siva's Cosmic Dance. San Francisco: Himalayan Academy, [1983].

Subramuniya, Master. Beginning to Meditate. Kapaa, HI: Wailua University of Contemplative Arts, 1972.

——. Raja Yoga. San Francisco: Comstock House, 1973.

——. The Self God. San Francisco: Tad Robert Gilmore and Company, 1971.

Subramuniya, Sr. Gems of Cognition. San Francisco: Christian Yoga Publications, 1958.

2261

Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii

℅ SRV San Francisco, 465 Brussels St.
San Francisco, CA 94134

Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii are an independent West Coast parallel to the SRV Association of America originally established by Lex Hixon (1941-1995). The Independent SRV Associations were founded in 1993 by Bob Kindler (b. 1950), a musician and a student of the Vedanta tradition as taught by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda. Kindler was initiated into Vedanta by Swami Aseshananda a disciple of Sri Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna's wife and spiritual consort. He later received instruction form two additional teachers of the Ramakrishna Order, Swami Nityasvarupananda and Swami Damodarananda.

Kindler, known affectionately as Babaji created Jai Ma Music, a sacred arts ensemble to express the teachings of India through devotional music. In this endeavor he was encouraged by Hixon, a friend and fellow believer. He toured with Jai Mai Music through the 1980s and 1990s.

The teachings of the ashrama is essentially the non-dual form of Adavaita Vedanta popularized by Viviaknanda and the Vedanta Societies. Babaji's training both in yoga and Vedanta and in music is reflected in the teaching at the SRV ashramas where the Wisdom of India is integrated with devotional music from both East and West. Babaji visits the various centers approximately four times annually. He leads up to four retreats a year and a group pilgrimage to India every two to three years. Personal initiation into the SRV Association and individual guidance in spiritual life is offered to those who accept the universal teachings of Sanatana Dharma in the tradition of Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Advaita Vedanta Journal.

Sources:

Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda SRV Associations of Oregon, San Francisco, and Hawaii. http://www.srv.org/. 23 April 2002.

2262

Sarva Dharma Sambhava Kendra

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Sarva Dharma Sambhava Kendra was founded in the 1970s in India by Nemi Chand Gandhi (b. 1949), generally known by his religious name Chandra Swami Maharaj. His family moved from his birthplace in Rajasthan to Hyderbad where as a youth Chandra was involved in two popular social movements, one to save the language of Hindi and the other to save the cows, which led to the assassination of a prominent political figure, Gulzarilal Nanda. Shorthly afterwards, he began a spiritual search which took him to Kathmandu where he met and studied with a tantric master. During this time he absorbed the worship of the Indian goddess Durga into his inherited Jain faith. After three years, in 1972, he returned as Chandra Swami.

Soon after his return from Kathmandu, Chandra organized a yagna in Madhuban. The goddess Durga is conceived in Indian thought as one of the forms of the consort of Shiva (or Siva). Durga is pictured as the "delighter in blood," and is frequently worshipped with a fire ceremony, yagna, in which animals are sacrificed. (Prior to legal action by the British, the yagna often included a human sacrifice.) Since that first yagna, Chandra has annually organized Durga Puja (worship) at various locations around India. Many of these are attended by famous people and political figures.

In the 1980s Chandra expanded his activities to a number of locations around the world including Fiji, Canada, and the United States, where headquarters were established in Los Angeles, California.

Membership: Not reported.

Remarks: Chandra Swami Maharaj has become famous as the confidant and guru to the rich and powerful. In the United States he has had connections with tennis star John McEnroe, actress Elizabeth Taylor, actor George Hamilton, and U.S. House of Representatives majority leader James Wright. He is a frequent visitor with multimillionaire Arab arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (one of the participants in the Iran-Contra arms deal in 1986-87), Prince Rainier of Monaco, and numerous political leaders in India.

2263

Sarvamangala Mission

℅ Srividya Center
366 Grapevine Dr.
Diamond Bar, CA 91765

Sarvamangala Mission is a Hindu organization built around the Hindu shakti tradition of Srividya. The mission is under the spiritual direction of Sri Rajagopala Anandanatha, a tantric saint and mystic. He is described by followers as a person who was born by divine dispensation, specially baptized by God at the age of eight, and who attained perfection at the age of 38. His arrival at a state of perfection followed a period of testing and temptations and a period of four years that he spent in prayer without food, drink, or sleep. Having traveled the higher levels of consciousness, he was commissioned by God to cure the sick and lead people to God.

Sri Rajagopala Anandanatha is a devotee of the Divine Mother and calls upon people to follow a path of realization through self-effort, self-surrender, and worship of the Divine Mother. He teaches that it is possible, no matter how many lifetimes a person has lived, to reach self-realization in this life. Vegetarian food is considered helpful in achieving mental concentration.

The Sarvamangala Mission was established in Southern California during the 1980s.

Membership: In 1995, more than 50 families contributed to support the work of the mission.

Periodicals: Shakti.

2264

Satsang with Robert

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Robert Adams (b. 1928) is a disciple of the late-guru Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950). At the age of 14, while preparing for a math test, he had a profound mystical experience, a realization that the world was not real. There was only the Self, the immutable, all-penetrating, all-prevailing Source of existence. The visible world was merely a set of images superimposed by the Unchangeable Self on reality. Some time after this life-changing event, he discovered Ramana Maharshi's book, Who Am I? Upon seeing the picture of Maharshi, he recognized him as a little man he had seen standing at the end of his bed during his childhood years.

He soon became a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and became a monk at the monastery of the Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinatas, California. Yogananda advised him to go to Ramanashram, near Tiruvannamalai, India, and Adams remained with Ramana during the last three years of the guru's life.

For 17 years after Ramana's death, Adams traveled, met with other gurus, and discussed his enlightenment. He has since that time traveled and taught, never staying in one place for very long. In the mid 1980s, Adams had a vision of many great teachers coming together and merging like a mountain. He understood the vision as a sign to cease his traveling and take a group of students. He settled in the Los Angeles, California, area and has been teaching since that time.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Adams, Robert. There Is No Suffering, There Is No Death: Satsang with Robert. Canoga Park, CA: The Author, 1991.

2265

Satyananda Ashrams, U.S.A.

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati (b. 1893), a former disciple of Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963), founder of the Divine Life Society, pioneered the modern opening of the yoga to all, both sannyasins and householders, regardless of sex, nationality, caste, or creed. After working with Sivananda for twelve years, he wandered India for nine more. In 1964, the year after his guru's death, Satyananda founded the Bihar School of Yoga. He built the Sivananda Ashram on the banks of the Ganges and the Ganta Darshan on a hill overlooking the river valley. Satyananda continued Sivananda's broad approach which integrated the various yogic techniques, but gave particular emphasis to tantra. Also, like Sivananda, he actively spread his teachings, first throughout India, and beginning with a world tour in 1968, to the West. During the 1970s he established ten ashrams and many centers in India and outside of India; followers could be found in Australia, Indonesia, Columbia, Greece, France, Sweden, England, and Ireland. As the movement spread, he organized the International Yoga Fellowship.

Satyananda's teachings came to the United States in two separate manners. First, in 1975 Llewellyn Publications, an occult publisher in St. Paul, Minnesota, released a major work by Swami Anandakapila (a.k.a. John Mumford), a leading disciple of Satyananda's in Australia. The publication of Sexual Occultism was followed by a United States tour in 1976 and feature articles in Gnostica, a major occult periodical. Concurrently with the publication of Anandakapila's book, a New York publisher released Yoga, Tantra and Meditation by Swami Jakananda Saraswati, a teacher for Satyananda in Scandinavia. Second, during the 1970s many students of Satyananda migrated to the United States from India, and as their numbers increased they formed small yoga groups. In 1980 Swami Niranjannan Saraswati (b. 1960), a leading teacher with Satyananda who had traveled extensively and organized ashrams for the International Yoga Fellowship, arrived in the United States. On October 28, 1980, he organized Satyananda Ashrams U.S.A., the American affiliate of the International Yoga Fellowship. Niranjananda remained in the United States teaching and organizing local centers. In the summer of 1982, Swami Amritananda, visited the United States. Her visit was followed immediately by Satyananda's first tour of North America.

While it is not the main emphasis of his teachings, Satyananda has become known as an exponent of the so-called left-hand path of tantric yoga. Tantra is built upon the blending and exchange of male and female sexual enengies and consciousness. In left-hand tantra, sexual intercourse is utilized as a means of reaching ananda (or bliss).

The International Yoga Fellowship is one of the largest yoga groups worldwide. Its extensive membership in the United States is somewhat hidden, being largely confined to the Indian-American community.

Membership: Not reported. Membership is estimated to be in the thousands as ashrams and centers may be found across the United States and Canada.

Periodicals: Yoga. Available from Bihar School of Yoga, Lal Darwaja, Monghyr 811201, Bihar, India.

Sources:

Janakananda Saraswati, Swami. Yoga, Tantra & Meditation. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975.

Mumford, John [Swami Anandakapila]. Sexual Occultism. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1975.

Satyananda Saraswati, Swami. Sure Ways to Self-Realization. Munger, Bihar, India: Bihar School of Yoga, 1983.

——. Taming the Kundalini. Munger, Bihar, India: Bihar School of Yoga, 1982.

Teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Mongyar, Bihar, India: Bihar School of Yoga, 1981.

2266

Self-Realization Fellowship

3880 San Rafael Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90065

The Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) traces its beginning to 1861 and the work of Mahavatar Babaji, who revived and taught kriya yoga. He chose Swami Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) to bring the teachings to the West. Yogananda was trained by Swami Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936) who left to Yogananda his succession and his ashram properties. Yogananda founded the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in 1917. In 1920, Swami Yogananda came to the United States to attend the Pilgrim tercentenary anniversary of the International Congress of Religious Liberals. Impressed by what he found in America, he decided to stay (one of the last Indians to come into America before the change in immigration laws stopped Asian migration to America), and with those Americans who flocked around him, formed a small center of the Yogoda Satsang in Boston, Massachusetts. From that center he traveled throughout the eastern United States.

In 1924 he made his first transcontinental lecture tour which culminated in the founding of a headquarters for his work on Mt. Washington in Los Angeles, California in 1925. In the later 1920s, he toured the principal cities of the United States as a lecturer and concentrated upon compiling two volumes of inspirational writings: Whispers of Eternity (1929) and Songs of the Soul (1925). A magazine, East-West (now Self-Realization), and a course of printed lessons aided the rapid spread of the movement, but nothing was as effective as the personality of Yogananda. Born in India, Yogananda, after his graduation from college, joined the strict Swami Order and became the disciple of Sri Yukteswarji. In 1916, he discovered the techniques of Yogoda, a system of life-energy control for physical and spiritual development, which, combined with traditional yoga, became the central concern of his teachings.

The spread of the work in America led in 1935 to the incorporation of the Self-Realization Fellowship as an international society. In addition to the headquarters in Los Angeles, other centers were opened in Encinatas, San Diego, Hollywood, Long Beach, and Pacific Palisades, California, with smaller groups formed around the country. Yogananda in death was as impressive as in life. His demise was heralded by his disciples as an extraordinary event because of "the absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda…even twenty days after his death," according to a notarized testimony from the Forest Lawn Mortuary in Glendale, California.

The emphasis of the Self-Realization Fellowship is teaching the way to bliss (ananda), or self-realization, or God-realization. The way to bliss is through "definite scientific techniques for attaining personal experience of God." The technique is kriya yoga, a system of awakening and energizing the psychic centers or chakras believed to be located along the spinal column. The basic practice is regular deep meditation which leads to a focusing of spiritual cosmic energies which leads to a direct perception of the Divine. By the practive of kriya yoga, blood is decarbonized and recharged with oxygen, the atoms of which are transmuted into "life current" to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers.

The essential unity of Eastern and Western religious teachings is also stressed by SRF. To highlight this emphasis, lecture services include interpretations of parallel scriptural passages from the New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita. Readings are also given from Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, considered a modern spiritual classic, which has remained in print since its publication in 1946 and is widely used as a text book and reference work in colleges and universities around the world. Worship centers on the inner communion (meditation) practices of Yogananda. Followers can study his teachings in depth through the many books of his lectures and writings that have been published as well as through a series of lessons for home study.

Yogananda was succeeded by Swami Rajarsi Janakananda (James J. Lynn). Lynn died in 1955 and was succeeded by Sri Daya Mata, the present head of the fellowship.

Membership: In 1998 the fellowship reported nine temples and ashram centers: six in California and one each in Phoenix, Arizona; Front Royal, Virginia; and Nuremberg, Germany. There are also an additional 172 centers and meditation groups in the United States and 220 in 47 other countries. The Yogoda Satsang Society of India had 100 centers and operated a variety of charitable facilities.

Educational Facilities: There are four Yogoda Satsanga Society colleges in India: one each in Suraikhet and Palpara, and two in Ranchi.

Periodicals: Self-Realization.

Sources:

Mata, Sri Daya. Only Love. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1976.

New Pilgrims of the Spirit. Boston: Beacon Press, 1921.

Self-Realization Fellowship Highlights. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1980.

Self Realization Fellowship Manuel of Services. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1965.

Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971.

——. Descriptive Outlines of Yogoda. Los Angeles: Yogoda Satsang Society, 1928.

2267

Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism

4748 Western Ave. NW
PO Box 9515
Washington, DC 20016

Several movements have grown out of the work of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda's disciples. The Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism is an independent church founded by Swami Premananda, who had been called from India by Yogananda in 1928. It now operates independently of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Besides the tradition of Kriya Yoga (self-realization) as taught by Premananda, the life and work of Gandhi are stressed, and the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation operates as an affiliate educational and cultural center. Swami Premananda established the Swami Order of Absolute Monism for those who wish to follow the ideals of advaita vedanta. The current leader of the church and the Ghandi Memorial Center is Srimata Kamala. She was ordained a minister in the Swami Order in 1973, and a swami in 1978.

Membership: No formal membership. In 1995, there was one center in Washington, D.C., two other centers in the United States, and a mission in Midnapur, West Bengal. There are four ministers.

Educational Facilities: The Gandhi Memorial Center administers a correspondence course on Mahatma Gandhi which is received as independent study credit at American colleges. The course leads to a certificate from the Gujarat Vidyapith, the university founded by Gandhi in 1920.

Periodicals: The Mystic Cross. • The Gandhi Message.

Sources:

Premananda, Swami. Light on Kriya Yoga. Washington, DC: Swami Premananda Foundation, 1969.

——. The Path of the Eternal Law. Washington, DC: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1942.

——. Prayers of Self-Realization. Washington, DC: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1943.

2268

Shanti Mandir

Box 1110
Pine Bush, NY 12566

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: ℅ Greenfield School, A/Z Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029, India.

Before Swami Muktanandas death in 1982 he picked a brother/ sister team, Swami Nityananda and Swami Chidvilasananda, to succeed him. For three years they coadministered the large global organization, Siddha Yoga Dham, that Muktananda had built. However, the apparent stability of the transition was soon disrupted by controversy and accusations, and in 1985 Swami Nityananda withdrew from Siddha Yoga Dham, renounced his vows as a sannyasin, and entered private life as a teacher of meditation in California.

On December 26, 1989, with a dip in the near freezing water of the Ganges River at Haridway, Nityananda reaffirmed his sannyas vow and his commitment to Muktananda and to do God's work. In July 1987, he founded Shanti Mandir (Temple of Peace) and began holding meditation retreats and other programs in America, Europe, Australia, and India. A lengthy period of conflict and harassment followed as members of Siddha Yoga Dham challenged his authority.

In May 1995 the Mahamandaleshwars in Haridwar, a network of spiritual leaders who act as advisors to the governing bodies of their respective regions, inducted him into their association in a ceremony at Suratgiri Bangla in Haridwar. Swami Nityananda, at the age of 32, became history's youngest Mahamandaleshwar.

Swami Nityananda continues the teachings of Swami Muktananda, offering Meditation Intensives designed for initiation, while emphasizing chanting as a powerful meditation practice and encouraging his followers to see all life as a manifestation of God's energy.

Membership: Not reported. Centers are found in India, Germany, and Australia.

Sources:

"Nityananda, One of Swami Muktananda's Successors, 'Retakes' Sannyasin Vows." Hinduism Today 12, 4 (April 1990).

2269

Shanti Temple

43 S. Main St.
Spring Valley, NY 10977

The Shanti Temple is a Hindu center founded in the 1980s by Swami Shantanand Saraswati. Swami Shantanand teaches a simple way centered upon regulation of the self, selfless service, and awareness. Awareness is attained through a seven-stage path of self-realization. The stages begin with shubhechchha (good desire), suvicharana (discrimination between the unreal and real), and tanumansa (steadfastness of mind). In the third stage, the practice of concentration begins the process of the development of detachment. In the fourth stage, sattwapatti (self-realization), one realizes the self as the Light of Pure Awareness, the non-judgmental observer of the mind. The fifth stage, asansakti (detachment) is a new level of detachment above ego, right and wrong, pride, and humility. The sixth stage, padarthabjavni, brings the ego into attunement with Spirit and leads to the final stage, turyaga, where the ego is completely immersed in Spirit.

The Shanti Temple operates out of a single center in Spring Valley, New York. Swami Shantanand is the author of several books.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Shantanand Saraswati, Swami. The Challenge of Wisdom. Spring Valley, NY: Shanti Temple, 1987. 59 pp.

2270

Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat

943 Central Ave.
Ocean City, NJ 08226

The Shanti Yoga Institute and Yoga Retreat was founded in 1974 by Shanti Desai. Yogi Desai became a disciple of Swami Kripalvanandji at a young age and was initiated at age 15. He came to the United States to pursue graduate studies in chemistry at Drexel University, earning his master's degree in 1964. In 1972 he left his job as a chemist to devote his life to teaching yoga. He returned to India and received shaktipat initiation from his guru. Upon his return to America he founded the Shanti Yoga Institute of New Jersey. In 1974 he opened the Yoga Retreat in Ocean City, New Jersey, and in 1981 he opened Prasad, a holistic health food store and restaurant. Shanti has published four books, an instructional yoga video, and a two-volume audio casette of Healing Mantra Chants. Shanti designed his instruction of yoga for a Western audience and has trained several thousand students and a number of yoga teachers.

Membership: There was one center in New Jersey.

Remarks: Shanti Desai is the brother of Amrit Desai, founder of the Kirpalu Yoga Fellowship.

Sources:

Desai, Yogi Shanti. The Complete Practice Manual of Yoga. Ocean City, NJ: Shanti Yogi Institute, 1976.

2271

Shiva-Shakti Kashmir Shavite Ashram

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Shiva-Shakti Kashmir Shavite Ashram is a small Hindu group that emerged around the leadership of Swami Savitripriya. Beginning in 1968, Swami Savitripriya had a series of mystical experiences that led her in the mid-1970s to proclaim herself a siddha guru of the highest level. She began to teach what she called Maha Siddha Yoga and to bring together a closely knit group of disciples who worked together as monks and nuns. During the 1980s they founded an ashram in Groveland, California.

The movement ran into some conflict in 1990 when the Siddha Yoga Dham challenged Swami Savitripriya's use of the term "Maha Siddha Yoga," as Siddha Yoga Dham had claimed ownership on the term "siddha yoga." The conflict was part of a larger conflict within Hindu circles over the trade marking of various terms common to Hinduism that had been pioneered in America by one particular organization. At last report the issue remains unresolved.

Membership: Not reported.

Educational Facilities: Holy Mountain University, Groveland, California.

Sources:

"Privitizing Public Domain Yoga Terms." Hinduism Today 12, 11 (November 1990): 1, 23.

Savitripriya, Swami. From Darkness to Light: My Autobiography. Sunnyvale, CA: New Life Books, n.d.

——. Psychology of Mystical Awakening. Sunnyvale, CA: New Life Books, 1991.

2272

Shri Krishna Association of the U.S.A.

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Shri Krishna Association of the U.S.A. is the American representative of the Pranami religion, a form of Hinduism that originated in India in the sixteenth century in the midst of the conflict between Hindus and Muslims. It was founded by Shri Prannath, a government official in the state of Jamnagar during the reign of Aurangzeb, a Muslim. In response to Aurangzeb's launching an evangelistic campaign that was disrupting the Hindu community, Prannath resigned his post and dedicated his life to saving Hinduism. He preached a monotheistic form of faith that rejected the many Hindu gods and goddesses in favor of Krishna, whom he believed to be the only god. Based upon his monotheism, he called for a reproachment between Hindus and Muslims.

The Pranamis have a holy book, Tartam Sagar, composed of some 18,000 verses written by Prannath. It draws on concepts from the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, and other scriptures. The movement took hold in Jamnagar and eventually spread across India into Nepal.

The Pranami religion was initially brought to the United States in the 1970s by immigrants. Followers can now be found in most of the major urban areas with a significant Indian-American population, including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta. There are also followers in Canada.

Membership: Not reported. The movement claims some four million followers and 400 temples in India and Nepal.

Sources:

Dongre, Archana. "Int'l Conference of Pranami Religion Held." India-West (July 3, 1992).

2273

Shri Ram Chandra Mission

Rte. 1, Box 122-5, Hwy. 109
Molena, GA 30258

Alternate Address: International Headquarters: ℅ Gayathri, 19 North St., Sri Ram Nagar, Madras, 600 018, India.

Shri Ram Chandra Mission (India) was established in 1945 by His Holiness Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur, (U.P.), popularly known as "Babuji." The mission was founded in memory of Babuji's master, Samarth Guru Mahatma Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh, (U.P.), who is affectionately known as "Lalaji." Its objectives are: To educate and propagate amongst the masses the art and science of yoga, made to suit present day conditions and needs; to promote the feelings of mutual love and universal brotherhood, irrespective of any distinction of caste, creed, color, etc.; to conduct research in the field of yoga and establish research institutes for that purpose; and to encourage research in yoga, including the granting of assistance to persons interested in carrying out this work.

Ram Chandra was born on April 30, 1899, at Shahjahanpur, to a Kayastha family, the son of a scholar. He was not an outstanding student but by his teen years had developed an interest in philosophy, literature, and geography. In his secular life, he joined the Court and retired after 30 years of service in 1954. He eventually found his way to Shri Ram Chandraji of Fategarh, (U.P.), who taught an old and forgotten method of "Pranahuti" (Divine Transmission) previously used by yogis in ancient times. He commenced his spiritual training of Abhyas under his guidance and gave up the practice of pranayama which he had been doing for the previous seven years.

When his guru died in 1931, Ram Chandra felt that his guru had transmitted to him everything he was. He had a sense of complete mergence of his guru into him. In 1932 he received further transmission from his guru master which he was not able to bear fully, and he was overfilled with Divine Energy. He gave the guru credit in 1944 when he had the vision of a light like that which Moses saw and also Shri Krishna's Viratsvarupa. Shri Ram Chandra Mission was founded to carry out the mission of his master.

Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj died on April 19, 1983. He was succeeded by his disciple, Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari of Chennai, the current president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Also known as "Chariji," Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari was born in 1927 in a village called Vayalur near Madras. He graduated from Benaras Hindu University with a B.S. degree and found employment with Indian Plastics Limited in chemical engineering. He rose to an executive position with the T. T. Krishnamachari group of companies in Bombay, with whom he stayed until his retirement in 1985. In the meantime, his conscious spiritual aspirations were awakened at the age of 18 after hearing a lecture on the Bhagavad Gita. He discovered Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj in 1964, and both he and his father accepted him as their new guru after hearing about this system of raja yoga. In recent years Chariji has traveled extensively worldwide. He regularly conducts public seminars, where he gives instruction on the Sahaj Marg system of meditation. During the past several years these seminars have been held in various cities around the world, including North America.

The way of Sahaj Marg is embodied in the "Ten Maxims" which lay out a daily schedule for the disciples. They rise before dawn to offer worship (puja) that begins with a prayer for spiritual elevation. Daily the disciple's goal is complete oneness with God. They strive to live a truthful, plain, and simple life and treat all people as their brothers and sisters. They eschew revenge and live out of gratitude so as to arouse feelings of love and piety in others. The day is ended in a feeling of the presence of God and the asking for forgiveness for any wrongs committed.

Membership: The mission has several hundred centers in India and numerous countries around the world. The training is imparted by the president of the mission and more than a thousand trainers, called preceptors, who are spread throughout the world.

Periodicals: Sahag Marg Magazine, SRCM Danmark, Vrads Sande, Vej4, 8654 Bryrup, Denmark.

Sources:

http://wwwsrcm.org/. Ram Chandra. Autobiography of Ram Chandra. 2 vols. Shahjahanpur, India: Shri Ram Chandra Mission, 1974, 1986.

——. Complete Works of Ram Chandra. Vol 1. Pacific Grove, CA: North American Publishing Committee, 1989.

2274

Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address: Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, J. P. Nagar, Bangalore 560 078, India

The Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust dates back to 1961 and completion of a period of austerity for Bala Yogi that led to his self-realization. Bala Yogi was born in 1935 in Adivarapupeta, a village in Andhra Pradesh, to a poverty-stricken family. As a child he went to work as a weaver of baskets. He also began a successful cigarette business. His commercial endeavors were blocked when, at the age of fourteen, he had an intense experience of the divine light, jyoti, and he heard the sound of Om, the basic creative sound of the universe. A person identified as Jangam Shiva, a Hindu deity, appeared before him and he went into a mystical state of consciousness, samadhi.

The experience changed the course of Bala Yogi's life. He began a period of intense meditation and austerity, which lasted for twelve years, and on August 7, 1961, he emerged as a sadhu (saint). He began a mission that consisted of holding darshan (vision of the realized person), giving consecrated Vibhuti (ash) for healing of body and mind, and kirtan (singing). He offered no new teachings to his disciples but initiated them into dhyana diksha (concentrated meditation). In his presence, or the presence of his picture, disciples normally gather to sit in meditation, receive some holy ash, and move into a period of spontaneous singing and dancing while in an ecstatic prayerful state.

Bala Yogi founded two ashrams in Bangalore and others in additional Indian communities, including his home town. In the late 1980s he established his first Western center in London and moved to the United States, with early centers established in Portland, Oregon; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Santa Barbara, California.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Bala Yogi Maharaj, Shri Shiva. Life and Spiritual Ministration. Bangalore, India: Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, n.d. 128 pp.

——. Spiritual Essence and Luminescence. Bangalore, India: Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, n.d. 18 pp.

"Shiva's Own Bala Yoga." Hinduism Today. 12, 8 (August 1990): 1, 25.

2275

Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram

45 Texas Rd.
Matawan, NJ 07747

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Sabarmati, Motera, Ahmedabad-380005, Gujrat, India. Canadian headquarters: 2647 Crystalburn Ave. Mississauga, ON, Canada L5B 2N7.

Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram is the vehicle for the spiritual ministry of Indian spiritual teacher Pujya Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu (b.1942). Born in what is now Pakistan, his family moved to Gujarat following the partition of India. He was raised in a devout Hindu home. As a young man he made a pilgrimage to Vrindavan, the holy city, where he met Swami Shri Lilashahaji Maharaj. Upon his return home, he started a period of intense spiritual practice at a site near the river Narmada at Moti Koral. His practice culminated in his meeting with SadGurudev Lilashahji Maharaj in Bombay (Mumbai). He emerged from the experience as Swami Shri Asaramji Maharaj. He was instructed to continue to serve the humanity by staying as a householder. Having attained a state of self-realization, he spent the next seven years in seclusion.

He chose to reside a site in the Motera village on the banks of Sabarmati river where some devotees constructed a small room for him. That room became the beginning of what became the first site of Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram. His followers came to see him as the embodiment of an ancient Vedantic ideal of perfection, one who after attaining liberation for himself strives for the liberation of others. He is thus known as a rishi.

His message emphasized traditional Hindu themes of Vedanta, yoga, divine love, bhakti (devotion), and mukti (salvation). He bestows "divine love" through Shaktipat, by which he releases kundalini energy in his disciples. He has developed "Maun Mandirs" special temples for spiritual practices (primarily meditation) where adherents may stay in complete seclusion for seven days. These small structures (many in the shape of pyramids), are for those who wish to make rapid progress in the spirit life and are available at all ashrams.

After the formal establishment of the Ashram in 1971, Pujya Bapuji began to travel and speak, first around India and then inter-nationally. His popularity in the United States can be dated form his appearance in 1993 at the World's Parliament of Religions meeting in 1993. Headquarters were established in New Jersey and additional centers opened in Chicago, Boston, and California. There is one center in Canada.

An ashram for women was also established at Ahmedabad, the residents devoting their time to performing spiritual practices and doing service to ashram. They are led by the honorable mother Laxmidevi. The ashram residents also mix and distribute various Ayurvedic medicinal products. Their activity is part of a larger effort to assist people around India with ayurvedic medicine.

Membership: Not reported. In 2000 there were 111 ashrams in India and 450 meditation centers around the world.

Sources:

Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram. http://www.ashram.org/indexnext.html. 23 April 2002.

2276

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers

673 8th Ave.
Val Morin, PQ, Canada J0T 2R0

Alternate Address: International affiliate: (unofficial) Divine Life Society, P.O. Shivanandanagar, Dist. Tehri-Garwal, Uttar Pradesh, India.

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers are the North American work founded by Swami Vishnu Devananda (b. 1927), the North American representative of the late Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963), who was sent to the West in 1957.

History. Swami Sivananda Saraswati (born Kuppuswami Iyer) was one of several renowned Hindu teachers to arise in this century and become revered as a saint and holy man. Reared by devout parents who encouraged his education, he began a medical course of study, cut short by the death of his father. He moved to Malaysia as a hospital administrator, but after ten years, in 1923, he returned to India to pursue a spiritual quest. He was initiated as a sannyasin, a follower of the renounced life, and settled at Swargashram, near Rishikish, where many sanyassins lived. He began to write, teach, and make pilgrimages around India. He advocated a life of devotion (bhakti yoga) and service (karma yoga).

Unwilling to forget the life of service upon which he had embarked as a youth, he moved to Rishikish and established an ashram. As part of the ashram facility, he opened a medical dispensary to serve the local community. By 1936 the work had grown considerably. He formed the Divine Life Trust and the Divine Life Society, an open membership auxiliary. The dispensary grew into a major medical facility and the ashram became a prime center for the propagation of yoga. It soon attracted many of the best teachers from throughout India.

Sivananda's teaching is summarized in the motto, "serve, love, give, meditate, purify, realize." He led his students upon a sadhana (path to enlightenment) which included bhakti (practicing love) and ahimsa (constant striving to do no harm and cause no pain). He developed a synthesis of yoga, which he call integral yoga and which included the four traditional forms of bhakti, jnana, karma, and raja, to which he added a fifth, japa (repetition of a mantra).

Sivananda never visited North America, but he sent several of his students. As early as 1959, Swami Chidananda, his succesor as leader of the ashram in India, visited the United States. Even before Sivananda's death his student began to establish work outside of India. Sivananda sent Swami Vishnu Devannada to work in Canada and the United States. While other students of Sivananda have also come to the United States, Vishnu Devananda is the teacher recognized by the Divine Life Society in India.

Swami Vishnu Devananda (1927-1993) was originally attracted to Swami Sivananda by reading his books and formally became his disciple in 1947. In 1949 at the Sivanandashram in Rishikish, Sivananda initiated him into the ancient sannyasin order of the renounced life, and Vishnu Devananda, through his studies and practice of the rigorous spiritual disciplines, went on to become one of Sivananda's most accomplished pupils. He came to the west in 1957 at Sivananda's direction. He founded several centers in the United States before settling permanently in Canada the following year. He established his North American headquarters in Montreal.

Beliefs. Swami Vishnu Devananda follows the teachings of Sivananda. He emphasizes the benefits of a rigorous spiritual discipline, and has focused upon raja and hatha yoga. He also shared the complete yoga teachings of his teacher.

Organization. The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams are headed by Vishnu Devananda, and the various centers are headed by teachers trained by him. In 1962 he founded the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec and in 1967 the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas, both of which provide intensive yoga training in a vacation-like setting. He has established ashrams (sanctuaries for the systematic practice of yoga for residents) in Val Morin, Quebec; Woodburne, New York; Grass Valley, California; and Trivandrum, India. Other foreign work is located in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

The True World Order, Vishnu Devananda's continuing world peace and brotherhood mission, was founded in 1969. To demonstrate his concern for peace and the importance of the non-violent struggle for peace, he has flown around the world dropping leaflets and organizing peace demonstrations at designated trouble spots. He conducted one famous peace mission to Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the late actor Peter Sellers. He also has showered the Suez Canal and the Berlin Wall with leaflets and flowers.

Membership: Not reported. In 1992 there were 14 centers (including two ashrams) in the United States and four (including one ashram) in Canada. In addition, several thousand followers have been trained as yoga teachers and are now active in a wide variety of locations apart from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. Vishnu Devananda's book, The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, has sold over three million copies.

Periodicals: Yoga Life. Available from Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, 243 W. 24th St., New York, NY 10011.

Remarks: Among the disciples of Sivananda was Swami Venkatesananda, who established work in Australia and South Africa. During the 1980s, the Chiltern Yoga Foundation was established in San Francisco, California for the sole purpose of publishing and distributing Swami Venkatesananda's books in the United States and Canada.

Sources:

Behera, Sarat Chandra. The Holy Stream, The Inspiring Life of Swami Chidananda. Sivanandanagar, India: Divine Life Society, 1981.

Devananda, Swami Vishnu. The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. New York: Julian Press, 1960.

——. The Hatha Yoga Pradhipika. N.p., n.d.

——. Meditation and Mantras. New York: OM Lotus Publishing Company, 1978.

——. The Sivananda Upanishad. New York: OM Lotus Publishing Company, 1987.

Krishna, Copala. The Yogi: Portraits of Swami Vishnu-devananda. St. Paul, MN: Yes International Publishers, 1995. 149 pp.

Sivananda, Swami. Sadhana. Sivanandanagar, India: Divine Life Society, 1967.

The Sivananda Yoga Center. The Sivananda Companion to Yoga. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.

Tawker, K. A. Sivananda, One World Teacher. Rishikish, India: Yoga-Vedanta Forest University, 1957.

Venkatesananda, Swami. Gurudev Sivananda. Durban, South Africa: Divine Life Society of South Africa, 1961.

2277

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT)

1834 Ocean St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

The Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT), founded in the mid-1970s is consecrated to the Teaching of Nonduality especially as revealed by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the south Indian sage who flourished (1879–1950) at the holy mountain called Arunachala. SAT is under the spiritual guidance of Nome, with a background influence of Advaita Vedanta and Russell Smith with a background in non-dual Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism.

The Teaching of Non-Duality proclaims that the true nature of the self, ones own being or consciousness, is that of the absolute (i.e., God, Brahman, Buddha nature, etc.) It proclaims that the self, of the nature of undivided being-consciousness-bliss, is infinite and eternal, verily the one reality, that both pervades and transcends all. This teaching places special emphasis on self-knowledge, attained by inquiring "Who am I?," which reveals the real Self, and which eliminates the illusion of a separate ego to reveal the homogeneous, infinite presence of reality. The resultant experience is self-realization, characterized by permanent peace and happiness.

The teaching has its roots in the Upanisads, the wisdom portion of the Vedas, the oldest and original scriptures of Hinduism (also called "Sanatana Dharma–the Way of Eternal Truth"). This teaching was also expounded by Sri Sankaracharya, the eighth-century Indian sage, as well as in numerous scriptures and sayings of many sages and saints of this tradition. It also has roots in non-dual Buddhism, as exemplified by the Ch'an Master of China during the T'ang Dynasty.

SAT endeavors to preserve and disseminate this supreme wisdom through its activities. These include maintaining a center in Santa Cruz, California, where seekers can imbibe the teaching, practice it, and realize self-knowledge. Other activities include the distribution of every book in English of or about Sri Ramana Maharshi; the distribution of Vedanta and Ch'an literature; and the translation and publication of books such as the Ribbu Gita (ancient treatise on nondual Truth), Sri Sankaras works, and teachings given by Nome and Russell Smith. SAT also conducts weekly Satsangs and other holy events, retreats, and a profusion of performances of sacred music from around the world, for which it has received international acclaim as well.

Membership: As of 2002, SATs membership was sprinkled worldwide, but is predominantly located in the Santa Cruz, California, area.

Periodicals: Reflections.

Sources:

The Journey Home. Santa Cruz, CA: Avadhut, 1986.

Maharshi's Gospel. Tiruvannamalai, India: T. N. Venkataraman, 1957.

Spiritual Instruction of Bhagavan Sri Raman Maharshi. Tiruvannamalai, India: T. N. Venkataraman, 1939.

2278

Sonorama Society

(Defunct)

The Sonorama Society was formed after the first trip at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to the United States in 1959 and was devoted to the Maharishi's guru, the late Swami Brahmananda Saraswati Maharaj, the illustrious Jagad-Guru Bhagawan of Jyotir-Math, Bhadrikashraman, India. At the age of nine, Swami Saraswati Maharaj began a forty-year exploration of inner consciousness that allowed him to rediscover the mental technique (transcendental meditation) and become leader of the Shankaracharya Order. He is seen as the perfect master.

The Society was formed as an association of persons who are practicing transcendental meditation. Sonorama Society members were tied together by correspondence lessons and irregular contact with those who have mastered the techniques. Headquarters were established in Los Angeles under the leadership of R. Manley Whitman, the sponsor-director. The society lasted only a few years; its work was superceded by the growth of the TM movement, now organized by the World Plan Executive Council.

2279

Spiritual Realization Institute

℅ Sri Puri Dhama Vaishnava Community
PO Box 305
Lockport, NY 14095-0305

Spiritual Realization Institute was founded by Geoffrey Giuliano (b. 1953), who has now legally changed his name to Jagannatha Dasa. As Geoffrey Giuliano, he is well-known for his books on various celebrities including the Beatles and an authority on popular music. He has written a number of books just on the Beatles including the controversial DARK HORSE/The Life and Art of George Harrison (1990) and more recently, Two of Us: John Lennon & Paul McCartney Behind the Myth. He also played the role of Ronald McDonald (the clown figure of the McDonald's fast food chain) for several years. As Jagannatha Dasa, he has been a student/practitioner of the the Chaitanya devotional tradition of Hinduism and the founder of an ashram in Lockport, New York, the home base of the Spiritual Realization Institute.

He initially became a devotee of Krishna consciousness in 1970, though only part time. Following graduation from college (with a degree in acting) in 1978, he took a job playing the Marvellous Magical Burger King and in 1980 began a two year stint as Ronald McDonald in Canada. As he became more serious about his Krishna attachments, and his belief in vegetarianism, he quit the job.

He had joined ISKCON but left in 1980 when "certain improprieties of my god-brothers came to light." That same year he met His Divine Grace B. H. Mangal Niloy Goswami Maharaja, a Krishna Consciousness guru, in Toronto, and in 1982 both he and his wife took initiation and accepted their new spiritual names Jagannatha Dasa and Vrndarani Devi. He eventually decided to follow the path of Krishna devotion to its logical conclusion.

In 1984 he wrote his first book on the Beatles. He recommitted himself to his religious faith in 1990. Three years later he and his wife established Sri Puri Dhama Vaishnava Community in Niagara County, New York. It was legally incorporated in 1996 as The Spiritual Realization Institute as an "international resource for those interested in the Vedic arts and sciences as well as a fully functioning educational and cultural institution." In the 1990s he has also operated as an activist against McDonalds.

SRI has become a member of the Food Bank of Western New York and under the name Dasa Food For All operates the only vegetarian food pantry in the area.

Membership: Not reported. As of 1999, SRI had about 30 initiated disciples, who have been given spiritual names, and another 50 members from across Western New York.

Sources:

Giuliano, Geoffrey. Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney. New York: Dutton, 1991.

——. Dark Horse the Private Life of George Harrison. New York: Dutton, 1990.

——. Two of Us John Lennon & Paul McCartney: Behind the Myth. New York London: Penguin Studio, 1999.

——, and Vrnda Devi. Glass Onion: The Beatles in Their Own Words-Exclusive Interviews with John, Paul, George, Ringo and Their Inner Circle. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1999.

Michelmore, William V. "Renowned Rock Biographer Reincarnates As Hindu Leader." Buffalo News (1999).

Posted at http://www.vnn.org/usa/US9908/US30-4615.html. 23 April 2002.

Spiritual Realization Institute. http://www.puripada.com/. 23 April 2002.

2280

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mandal

℅ Guardian of Devotion Press
2900 N. Rodeo Gulch Rd.
Soquel, CA 95073

Prior to the passing of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) (the Hare Krishna movement in the west), he informed his senior disciples that in his absence, should the necessity arise, they should consult a higher authority. He instructed them to approach his trusted and revered godbrother Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Goswami. (By godbrother it is meant that they were both initiated by the same guru.) Both Prabhupada and Sridhara were initiated by Bhaktisiddanthanta Sarswati Thakur, the president-archarya of the Guadiya Math, which had been the main Krishna Consciousness organization in Bengal. In the wake of the disruption of the Guadiya Math in India, Sridhara was one of several disciples who had founded an independent organization, Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Math.

In the wake of Prabhupada's death, intense theological and organizational disputes emerged within the society and its governing board. Some of Prabhupada's disciples, following his instructions, turned to Sridhara for guidance and subsequently broke with the society and founded Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mandal as an American branch of the Math.

Since its founding in the early 1980s, the Mandal has carried on an active publishing program through its Guardian of Devotion Press, which has issued many of Sridhara's books.

Membership: There is one temple affiliated with the mandal with approximately 100 members. Affiliated centers are also found in England, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa, Italy, Holland, Austria, Hungary, and Australia.

Sources:

Sridhara Deva Goswami, Bhakti Raksaka. Parpanna Jivanamrta: Lifenectar of the Surrendered Souls. Nabadwip Dham, West Bengal, India: Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, 1988.

——. The Search for Sri Krsna, Reality the Beautiful. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1983.

——. Sri Guru and His Grace. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1983.

——. Subjective Evolution of Consciousness: Play of the Sweet Absolute. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1988.

Thakura, Bhaktivinoda. The Bhagavat: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics, and Its Theology. San Jose, CA: Guardian of Devotion Press, 1985.

2281

Sri Chinmoy Centre

Box 32433
Jamaica, NY 11432

Sri Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, born in Bengal, India in 1931, entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at the age of 12. After two decades of intense spiritual discipline, he responded to an inner command and came to the West in 1964 to be of service to seekers in the West. He teaches a path of yoga that directs the practitioner to conscious union with God. He also encourages an active, dynamic life of service to the divine in humanity. His path calls for a disciplined life involving regular meditation, living and working in the world, vegetarianism, and celibacy.

As a spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy guides his students meditative discipline and spiritual growth. He never charges any fee for his service, and teaches that the path of love, devotion (bhakti) and surrender to God is the easiest way to God, but he accepts all religions and has the utmost devotion for Christ, Buddha, Krishna and the other great religious figures of the world. He encourages athletics as a means to the illumination of the physical consciousness, and his centres around the world have sponsored many running events. Among other activities, his students sponsor the Sri Chinmoy Oneness–Home Peace Run, a 70-nation relay run for the cause of world peace that has been held every other year since 1987.

Sri Chinmoy is a prolific author, composer and artist. He has written more than 1,300 books of poetry, essays and questions and answers and composed over 13,000 devotional songs in English and his native Bengali. He has also completed more than four million "soul-bird" drawings, depictions of the human spirit in the form of birds, which have been exhibited worldwide. Often described as an international ambassador of peace, he has offered hundreds of meditative concerts to the cause of world peace and has discussed peace with dozens of world leaders.

Inspired by his activities, authorities around the world have dedicated natural wonders or other sites to the cause of peace in his name. Among the worlds "Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms," as these sites are collectively referred to, are the capital cities of Ottawa, Canada; Canberra, Australia; and Auckland, Australia; the Swiss Matterhorn mountain, Viet Nams Meklong Delta, Canadas Niagara Falls, Russias Lake Baikhal, and various locations in the United States.

Membership: In 1995 the centers reported 5,000 members worldwide; 1,500 in the United States, and 1,000 in Canada..

Periodicals: Anahata Nada.

Sources:

Chinmoy, Sri. Arise! Awake!. New York: Frederick Fell, 1972.

——. Astrology, the Supernatural and the Beyond. Hollis, NY: Vishma Press, 1973.

——. My Lord's Secrets Revealed. New York: Herder and Herder, 1971.

——. A Sri Chinmoy Primer. Forest Hills, NY: Vishma Press, 1974.

Madhuri [Nancy Elizabeth Sands]. The Life of Sri Chinmoy. Jamaica, NY: Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1972.

2282

Sri Ram Ashrama

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Sri Ram Ashrama was founded in 1967 at Millbrook, New York, as the Ananda Ashrama by Swami Abhayananda. Swani Abhayananda's guru was Rammurti Sriram Mishra, and the Ashrama was soon renamed in his honor. During the years in which Timothy Leary and his League for Spiritual Discovery was located at Millbrook, the two groups existed side by side on the Hitchcock Ranch. Later the Ashrama moved to Benson, Arizona. The Ashrama is a center for yoga in its practical, universal and scientific aspects. It is a universal and cosmic religion.

Members of the Ashrama are expected to manifest five resolutions: ahimsa, truthfulness, honesty, direction of all bodily and mental energies toward reality, and the renunciation of worldly goods. They study and follow eight principles: Yama, determination to live in the light of truth; Niyama, the five methods of cleanliness, contentment, critical examination of senses, study and complete self-surrender; Asana, the postures of yoga which leave the mind free for meditation; Pranayama, breath-energy control; Pratyhora, sublimation of psychic energy to high purposes; Dharana, fixation of attention; Dhyana, continuous meditation and focusing attention, and Samadhi, transformation of all attention.

The Ashrama is run by its officers and board of trustees. Kriya Press is the publication arm.

Membership: Not reported. In 1970, the ashrama claimed 2,000 adherents in its greater family.

2283

Sri Rama Foundation

Box 2550
Santa Cruz, CA 95063

Sri Rama Foundation was formed in 1971 as the vehicle for the teachings of Baba Hari Dass and through the profits to support homeless children in India. Baba Hari Dass was born in Almora District, India, in the Himalayan foothills. He left home at the age of eight to join a renuciate group in the jungle. He became a mauni sadhu (a person who accepts a vow of silence), though he has led an active life managing ashrams and teaching yoga. He developed his own system of teaching the traditional ashtanga (eightlimbed) yoga. In 1971 some Western students persuaded him to come to the United States, and he began to hold regular satsang to a group of disciples who gathered around him.

Ashtanga yoga is the system the legendary figure Patanjali compiled from early teachings on yoga. Baba Hari Dass continues Patanjali's teachings of a process involving eight parts: yama (restraints); niyama (observances); asana (postures); pranayama (breathing); pratyahara (withdrawal of the mind from sense perception), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (superconsciousness). In addition, a strong foundation of Samkhya philosophy, a spirit of devotion, and a deep understanding of nondualism (Vedanta) charaterizes the teachings of Babi Hari Das.

The major center of Baba Hari Dass's students is the Mount Madonna Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Watsonville, California. In Vancouver, British Columbia, in the mid-1970s a group of Babi Hari Dass's devotees began a series of publications, termed the Dharma Sara series, which resulted in several books and a magazine, Dharma Sara, since discontinued. Another group formed the Ashtanga Yoga Fellowship in Ontario and sponsor annual events with Baba Hari Dass. In 1980 Baba Hari Dass founded Shri Ram Orphanage in the Himalayan foothills of northern India. The orphanage is home to 30 children.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Between Pleasure and Pain, The Way of Conscious Living. Sumas, WA: Dharma Sara Publications, 1976.

Dass, Baba Hari. Ashtanga Yoga Primer. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Publishing, 1981.

——. Hariakhan Baba, Known, Unknown. Davis, CA: Sri Rama Foundation, 1975.

——. Silence Speaks. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Foundation, 1977.

——. Sweeper to Saint. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Publishing, 1980.

2284

SRV Association of America

℅ Interfaith Peace Temple
20 Jennings Rd.
Greenville, NY 12083

SRV Association of America a international fellowship of people who share the teachings of Advaita Vedanta as taught by Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda that include an affirmation of the "absolute oneness of all existence, the underlying harmony of all religions and cultures, and the practice of contemplative disciplines along the path of spiritual realization, not simply to benefit oneself but to benefit humanity."

The association was founded by Lex Hixon (1941-1995). As a young man, Hixon has launched a spiritual search through an encounter with Zen Buddhist teacher Alan Watts and later with Vedanta teacher Swami Nikhivananda who encouraged his entrance into the Ph.D. program at Colombia University. In 1980 he became a sheikh with the Khalwati-Jerrahi Sufi Order and assumed the care of four communities of Sufis. In 1983, he and his wife Sheila began a formal, three-year study of the mystical theology of Eastern Orthodoxy at Saint Vladamir's Seminary, the American seminary of the Orthodox Church in America. In the last decade of his life he tried to integrate the four spiritual tradition-Vedanta, Buddhism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Jerrahi Sufism.

He saw the key to life, however, in his encounter with Vedanta, a fact highlighted in his 1992 book, Great Swan: Meetings with Ramakrishna. He saw Ramakrishna as an inspiration to create a global society based on the intuitive sense of the Sacred. The SRV Association reflects this central concern.

Today, the association is headed by an international board of directors. It provides guidance and teachings in the tradition of Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna, and Vivekananda, though emphasizes no single doctrinal or denominational affiliation. The perspective allows it to be open to all "authentic" religious practices and philosophical teachings as well as all forms of helpful, nonpolitical activity.

The association's present endeavors are brought together in the Upstate New York Interfaith Peace Temple/Center for Spiritual Living near Albany, New York, a place for meditation and reflection and interfaith worship. The temple is dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada, and Swami Vivekananda as symbols of Universal Truth, and modeled after the principles of "Global Education for Human Unity and World Civilization" as presented by Swami Nityasvarupananda, a disciple of Sarada Devi.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

"Lex Hixon." http://www.srv.org/LexHixonBio.html. 23 April 2002.

Nityaswarupananda, Swami. "Global Education for Human Unity and World Civilization." http://www.members.global2000.net./~sarada/WC/WCC1.html. 23 April 2002.

SRV Association of America. http://www.universaltemple.org/3version/alexsrv.html. 23 April 2002.

2285

Swami Kuvalayananda Yoga Foundation

339 Fitzwater St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147

The Swami Kuvalayanananda Yoga (SKY) Foundation was founded by Dr. Vijayendra Pratap who earned a Ph.D. in applied psychology at the Bombay University. Dr. Pratap was the student of Swami Kuvalayanandaji, founder of Kaivalyadhama, the famous yoga center in Bombay, and served as its assistant director before coming to the United States. The SKY Foundation offers classes in hatha yoga at all levels, trains teachers, and holds classes on yogic philosophy based on Patanjali (the ancient writer who put into simple, cogent language the theory and techniques of yoga). One of the purposes of the Foundation is to research the older yogic traditions in the light of modern knowledge, and the foundation has sponsored several conferences on science and yoga. Headquarters are in Philadelphia above the Garland of Letters Bookstore, operated by the foundation. The foundation considers itself an educational organization rather than a religious or spiritual center.

Membership: Not reported. There is one center in Philadelphia.

Remarks: The SKY Foundation considers itself an educational and research organization, not a religious one. However, it falls under the broad definition of "religious" as used in this Encyclopedia, hence its listing is continued.

2286

SYDA Foundation

371 Brickman Rd.
South Fallsburg, NY 12779

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Gurudev Siddha Peeth, PO Ganeshpuri, Dist. Thoma, Maharastra, India.

Swami Muktananda Paramahansa (1908-1982) was the leading disciple of Bhagwan Nityananda (d. 1961), a siddha master who in his later years settled in Ganeshpuri, India. Muktananda, or Baba, as he was called by his followers, left home at the age of 15 to wander through India studying philosophy and mastering the different branches of yoga. In 1947, he sought out Bhagawan Nityananda, whom he had met in his youth, and received shaktipat initiation (for the awakening of the inner trnsformative energy, generally referred to as kundalini) from him. Nine years later, after intense spiritual practices under his guru's guidance, Muktananda attained self-realization. Before his death, Nityananda transferred the power of the siddha lineage to Muktananda. Following his guru's wishes, Muktananda established an ashram, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, in a small village called Gavdevi near the town of Ganeshpuri. It is considered the mother ashram of the movement.

In the 1960s, the first American seekers began to arrive. In 1970, some of these devotees requested Muktananda to undertake his first world tour which lasted three months and included stops in Europe, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Australia. Baba Ram Dass accompanied Muktananda on much of this tour. After this initial visit, the first centers began to appear in America. Also as a result of this visit, Westerners came in even greater numbers to Ganeshpuri, among whom was Werner Erhart, the founder of Erhart Training Seminars (est). At Erhard's invitation, in 1974, Muktananda returned to the West, this time for two years. A final journey was made in 1978 which lasted for three years.

In 1974 the foundation was established to make the teachings of Siddha Yoga available to seekers around the world. Under its administration, SYDA oversees the Siddha yoga curriculum, the publication of books and magazines, the production of audiovisuals, and the administration of the several education/ humanitarian projects including the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute (in India), the PRASDA Project, and the Prison Project sponsored by the practitioners. The foundation is headed by a board of directors.

The Muktabodha Indological Research Institute is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the scriptures and traditions of India and operates through a number of projects including scholarly publications, research and study programs, and archival projects. The Vedashala Project preserves the mantras and rituals of the Vedas. The institute is accredited by the University of Pune, India, for post graduate studies.

Before his death, Swami Muktananda designated Swami Chidvilasananda, known as Gurumayi, as his successor. He had trained her since childhood to succeed him. At that time he also appointed another successor, Swami Nityananda, Chidvilasananda's brother, but he retired from that position in 1985.

The path of siddha yoga is based upon shakipat initiation, or the awakening of the spiritual energy (kundalini) through the grace of the guru. The practice of the yoga includes meditation, chanting, selfless service, contemplation, and devotion to the guru.

Membership: There is no formal membership in Siddha yoga meditation. In 1997 there were more than 500 Siddha Yoga Meditation Centers throughout the world, and residential centers in Australia, England, Mexico, and the United States.

Educational Facilities: Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, South Fallsburg, New York.

Periodicals: Darshan. • Transformation NeeleswariSiddha Yoga. Both available from Gurudev Siddha Peeth, PO Ganeshpuri, Dist. Thoma, Maharastra, India.

Remarks: During the 1980s, the Siddha Yoga Dham has had to weather two major scandals. Shortly after Swami Muktananda's death, several of his close associates left the movement and denounced him for taking sexual liberties with female disciples. The accusations became a occasion for widespread discussions of the nature and qualification of leadership in Indian-based movements in the West. Then in 1986, the Illustrated Weekly of India published two "expose" stories concerning charges made by Subash Shetty, until his retirement in 1985 known as Swami Nityananda, about his sister, Swami Chidvilasananda. A defamation case was filed against the magazine, and in 1987 they published a full retraction and apology. The movement has been able to put both incidents behind it.

Swami Nityananda, following his withdrawal from work with Swami Chidvalasananda, established a new organization, Shanti Mandir Seminars, and is continuing his work through it.

Sources:

Brook, Douglas Renfrew, et al. Meditation Revolution: A History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage. South Fallsburg, NY: Agama Press, 1997. 709 pp.

Caldwell, Sarah. "The Heart of the Secret: A Personal and Scholarly Encounter with Shakta Tantrism in Siddha Yoga." Nova Religio. 5, 1 (October 2001): 9-51.

Muktananda, Swami. Guru. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.

——. Play of Consciousness. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

——. Reflections of the Self. New York: SYDA Foundation, 1982.

Paramahansa, Muktananda. Bhagawan Nityananda, His Life and Mission. Ganespuri, India: Shree Gurudev Ashram, n.d.

Prajananda, Swami. A Search for the Self. Ganeshpuri, India: Durudev Siddha Peeth, 1979.

2287

Tantrik Order in America

(Defunct)

The Tantrik Order was one of the first Hindu groups founded in the United States, and possibly the first created by a Western student of the Eastern teachings. It was founded in New York City by Pierre Bernard (born 1875 as Peter Coons) (1875-1955), better known by members of the order as Oom the Omnipotent. The order had superceded the Bacchante Academy whose California operation had ceased in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Associated with the order was the New York Sanskrit College.

Bernard taught a form of Tantric Hinduism combined with hatha yoga. The sexual aspects of tantra were included as integral aspects of the instruction, and Bernard came under scrutiny during the early days of the order's operation as police began to suspect him of trying to seduce his pupils. He survived several early scandals, however, and in 1924 moved to an estate in Nyack, New York, on Long Island, and continued as leader of the order for the next three decades (closed only briefly during World War II when the estate was used as a center for refugees from Nazi Germany). His clientele included many wealthy people, including several members of the Vanderbilt family. Bernard became a wealthy and influential citizen. He donated a zoo to the community and eventually became president of the bank in nearby Pearl City.

As far as is known, the order died with its founder. There are reports of the existence of an offshoot, the New York Sacred Tantrics, which functioned during the 1960s. However, reports have not been confirmed and if the group existed, it had disbanded by the late 1970s.

Remarks: Pierre Bernard had several famous relatives. He was the cousin-by-marriage of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. In the early years of his work in New York, he was the guardian of his half-sister, Ora Ray Baker, who became the wife of Hazrat Inayat Khan, founder of the Sufi Order. Bernard's nephew, Pierre Bernard, wrote what is a classic text on yoga as his thesis at Columbia University, Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience.

Sources:

Boswell, Charles. "The Great Fume and Fuss over the Omnipotent Oom." True (January 1965): 31-33, 86-91.

"In Re Fifth Veda" in International Journal of the Tantrik Order. New York: Tantrik Order in America, n.d. [1909].

Sann, Paul. Fads, Follies, and Delusions of the American People. New York, 1967.

2288

Tantrika International

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Tantrika International was founded by Bodhi Avinasha, a prominent tantric yoga teacher who had begun her spiritual career as a sanyasin with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) and Osho International Commune. She later claimed mystical contact with the legendary Himalayan maser known as Babaji (first introduced to the West by Pramahansa Yogananda). She gained initial fame as the co-author of co-author of the best selling text, Jewel in the Lotus (now available in seven languages). Through the 1990s she was a popular workshop and seminar instructor.

As an independent tantra teacher, Bodhi Avinasha developed Ipsalu Tantra, which she offers as an accelerated path for mastery of sexual, emotional and mental energies, and a way that safely activates the kundalini (a latent energy which tantrics believe resides at the base of the spine). Tantric practice traditionally aims at activating the kundalini, which travels up the spine and brings enlightenment.

Tantrika International offers a variety of events including weekend intensives and week long retreats as well as a correspondence course for people to learn and advance their appropriation of tantric yoga through the techniques of tantric kriya yoga. Key to the practice is the use of the cobra breath, a form of breathing that is believed to heighten the rise of kundalini.

The new perspective offered by Tantrika International is seen as a way of looking at life based on experience (apart from analysis and the search for absolute truth). It is understood that one's perspective with continue to change throughout life. Individuals are invited to see the external world as a mirror of their internal states. They create their life experience. Freedom from the past comes from taking responsibility for the present. Then as individuals identify with their divine inner self, they we see the divine order in the totality.

Tantrika International also offers support and resources for the nurturing of Ipsalu Tantra communities around the world. Such communities begin with partnering either with Bodhi or one of the Ipsalu certified teachers and a couple who wish to share tantra with others in their home town. Tantrika International teachers trained to offer Ipsula Tantra may be found in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Bulgaria and New Zealand.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Avinasha, Bodhi, and Sunyata Sanaswati. Jewel in the Lotus: The Tantric Path to Higher Consciousness. Fairfield, IA: Sunstar Publishing, 2000.

Tantrika International. http://www.tantrikainternational.com./. 23 April 2002.

2289

Temple of Cosmic Religion

174 Santa Clara Ave.
Oakland, CA 94610

In 1966, while attending the Kumbha Mela (ritual bathing) Festival in the Ganges River, an independent Hindu teacher, later to be known as Satguru Sant Keshavadas, was told by a holy man named Lord Panduranga Vittala, to "Go to the West; spread the cosmic religion." When Keshavadas returned to Delhi, the advice was reinforced in a vision. The following year he began a tour of Europe and the Middle East and arrived in the United States in May. In 1968 he founded a center in Washington, D.C., as the American headquarters of the Dasashram International Center in India. In the mid-1970s the American headquarters moved to Southfield, Michigan, near Detroit, and adopted the name of the Temple of Cosmic Religion, a title long used in the movement.

In bringing Hinduism to the West, Keshavadas envisioned the beginning of a world cosmic religion, uniting all religious paths. This cosmic religion will propose that truth is one and that all paths lead to the realization of God. Keshavadas teaches yoga and meditation and devotion to God through chanting and singing (bhakti yoga, as discussed in the introductory material for this volume). He believes karma and reincarnation to be central to the beliefs of the religion.

From the world headquarters of the Temple of Cosmic Religion located in Bangalore, India, at the Panduranga Temple, temples have been established around India in five locations, and in England, Trinidad, and the United States.

Membership: Not reported. In 1995 there was one temple and several study groups around the United States.

Sources:

Keshavadasasji, Sadguru. The Doctrine of Reincarnation and Liberation. Bangalore, India: Dasasharama Research Publications, 1970.

Keshavadasji, Sant. This Is Wisdom. Privately printed, 1975.

——. The Purpose of Life, New York: Vantage Press, 1978.

——. Sadguru Speaks. Washington, DC: Temple of Cosmic Religion, 1975.

Life and Teachings of Sadguru Sant Keshavadas, A Commemoration. Southfield, MI: Temple of Cosmic Religion, 1977.

Mukundadas [Michael Allen Makowsky]. Minstrel of Love. Nevada City, CA: Hansa Publications, 1980.

2290

Temple of Kriya Yoga

2414 N. Kedzie
Chicago, IL 60647

The Temple of Kriya Yoga was founded by Goswami Kriyananda (born Melvin Higgins), not to be confused with the Swami Kriyananda who founded the Ananda Ashrama. The temple is headquartered in a temple building on the north side of Chicago. Kriyananda had studied with a guru, spoken of only as Sri Sri Shelliji in the temple literature, who passed to him the kriya yoga tradition of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Kriyananda began teaching yoga in the 1940s and opened the temple in Chicago in the 1960s. Kriyananda, an accomplished astrologer, also opened the College of Occult Sciences which offered classes in a variety of esoteric subjects.

During the late 1970s, the temple abandoned its rented facilities in downtown Chicago for its new headquarters. Associated with the Chicago center is a retreat facility in South Haven, Michigan. In 1977 the Kriyananda Healing Center was established as a holistic health facility, adjacent to the temple. Traditional western medicine is supplemented by a program emphasizing yoga and meditation, fasting, biofeedback, and massage.

Kriyananda follows the yoga system of Yogananda, and over the years he has authored a variety of books delineating kriya yoga, meditation, and astrology. He sees religion as providing a deep personal understanding of the nature and purpose of God and the Universe. He teaches the oneness of law, spirit, and love and their identity with God. He affirms the meaningfulness of the universe and the possibility of attaining illumination and fulfillment (through the practice of kriya yoga) in this lifetime.

Membership: Not reported. There are several hundred temple members and many more individuals who receive the benefits of the temple through its classes, programs and astrology services.

Periodicals: The Flame of Kriya.

Sources:

Kriyananda, Goswami. The Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, n.d.

——. Pathway to God-Consciousness. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, 1970.

——. Yoga, Text for Teachers and Advanced Students. Chicago: Temple of Kriya Yoga, 1976.

2291

Temple of Yoga (Acharya)

(Defunct)

The Temple of Yoga was founded by Besudeb Bhattacharya (d.1949), an Indian poet, playwright, and yoga teacher, who came to America just prior to World War I. Under the name "Sree Besudeb" he authored several plays, but some time in the 1920s turned his attention to the teaching of yoga and Hinduism. He founded the Yoga Research School in New York City, but later moved to Long Island. Nyack became the center of his activities, which included Prana Press, Hope, Inc., and the Temple of Yoga. He wrote a number of books under his religious name, Pundit Acharya, though some of them were published posthumously by his students.

Integral to Pundit Acharya's approach to yoga was his attempt to reinterpret yoga in scientific terminology, in light of "neuro-bio electronics." He developed the Acharyan Method of yoga which resulted in a number of exercises to release the life force and bring relaxation. He believed that sleep was a great rejuvenator, as it was the time for recharging the brain from the energy reservoirs of the infinite universe.

Sources:

Acharya, Pundit. Breath, Sleep, the Heart, and Life. Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1976.

——. Mukti. Nyack, NY: Prana Press, 1967.

——. The Saffron Veil. New York: Prana Press, 1963.

——. A Strange Language. Nyack, NY: Yoga Research School, 1939.

2292

Transcendent Science Society

(Defunct)

The Transcendent-Science Society was founded in Chicago, Illinois, by Premel El Adaros, also known as Swami Brahmavidya, around 1920. The society is known by one book on its teachings written by its founder and several by Swami A. P. Mukerji, a prominent South Indian yogi. Brahmavidya claimed to be the United States representative of the same order, the South India Brotherhood, to which Mukerji belonged. Transcendent-science, the science of self-knowledge, was designed to lead to a knowledge of the self, union with the divine, and liberation or mukti. The practices of transcendent-science consisted of strict moral living, yoga postures, breathing exercises, concentration, and meditation.

Mukerji presented a course in yogi philosophy and practice based on concentration, meditation, and thought control. He included instructions on breath control (pranayana), hatha yoga exercises, diet (vegetarianism is advised), and various body cleansing techniques. He was among the earliest Hindus to introduce the concept of guru worship (reverence for the teacher who is a person of high spiritual attainment), a most controversial idea for Western audiences. Equally controversial was the concept of worshipping the terrible, i.e., becoming one with the negative, which he taught as a means of seeing its ultimate unreality.

The society survived only a brief time, however, the writings of A. P. Mukerji continue to be circulated, having been kept in print by the Yogi Publication Society.

Sources:

Brahmavidya, Swami. Transcendent-Science or The Science of Self Knowledge. Chicago: Transcendent-Science Society, 1922.

Mukerji, A. P. The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga. Chicago: Premel El Adaros, 1922.

——. Spiritual Consciousness. Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, 1911.

2293

Truth Consciousness

℅ Sacred Mountain Ashram
10668 Gold Hill Rd.
Boulder, CO 80302-9716

Truth Consciousness was founded by Swami Amar Jyoti in 1974 and is devoted to a vision of what it perceives as Truth and the freeing of human consciousness into Divine Consciousness. Prabhushri Swamiji, as he is called by his devotees, was born in northwest India in 1928. A few months prior to college graduation, he renounced his seemingly destined life of comfort and success to follow an inner dictum, "Know yourself and you shall know everything." After a decade of sadhana (spiritual practices) and meditation in the Himalayas, he achieved his goal. He then began traveling throughout India and in 1960, at the request of disciples, founded Jyoti Ashram in Pune (or Poona), Maharashtra State. In 1961 Prabhushri Swamiji visited the United States for the first time then returned to Pune, concentrating for a decade on his work in India.

Prabhushri Swamijis way is a classical path of spirituality, building a firm foundation with each soul based upon the principles of Dharma (living according to Divine Law). Principles such as truthfulness, humility, purity, and devotion are stressed. With compassion, patience, and wisdom, the Guru attempts carefully to guide each disciple toward a natural unfoldment unto the Divine.

Prabhushri Swamiji again visited the United States in 1973 and at that time founded his first ashram in the west, Sacred Mountain Ashram. Truth Consciousness is the non-profit corporation which ties together the American centers. There are currently two ashrams (for renunciates) and two community centers for individuals, couples, and families who wish to live a spiritually oriented life under the direct guidance of the Master.

The ashrams and community centers offer programs year round and sincere seekers are welcome. Satsang (Sanskrit for "communion with Truth") is held twice weekly and includes devotional music (chanting) and meditation. Other regular programs include Guru Aarati (morning prayers and worship), weekly group meditations, and weekend and extended retreats.

Membership: There is no formal membership. There are two Truth Consciousness ashrams in the United States: Sacred Mountain Ashram in Boulder, Colorado, and Desert Ashram in Tucson, Arizona. A community center is located adjacent or near each Ashram. An estimated several hundred individuals are affiliated with the organization. In India, Ananda Niketan, the trust founded by Swami Amar Jyoti, maintains Jyoti Ashram in Pune, four hours from Bombay. There is also a center in New Zealand.

Periodicals: Light of Consciousness–Journal of Spiritual Awakening (USA). • Chinmaya Jeevan–Conscious Living (India).

Sources:

Frey, Kessler. Satsang Notes of Swami Amar Jyoti. Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1977.

Jyoti, Swami Amar. Dawning: Eternal Wisdom Heritage for Today. Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1991.

——. Spirit of Himalaya. Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1985.

——. Retreat Into Eternity, Boulder, CO: Truth Consciousness, 1981.

2294

Universal Brotherhood Temple and School of Eastern Philosophy

(Defunct)

The Universal Brotherhood Temple and School of Eastern Philosophy was an early American Hindu organization founded by Yogi Sant Rama Mandal in San Francisco in the 1920s. During the 1930s it was headquartered in Santa Monica, California and is known today only through Mandal's surviving publications. Mandal taught a system of yoga for self-development and self-realization which included hatha yoga, meditation, the repetition of mantras, diet, and practical exercises. He also taught a method to awaken the "kundalini," the latent energy believed to be located at the base of the spine which, upon awakening, travels up the spinal column to bring enlightenment. No information on Mandal's early years or the eventual fate of the temple has been available.

Sources:

Mandal, Sant Rama. Course of Instruction in Mystic Psychology. Santa Monica, CA: Universal Brotherhood Temple and School of Eastern Philosophy, n.d.

——. Gems of Aryan Wisdom. San Francisco, CA: Universal Brotherhood Temple and School of Eastern Philosophy, 1931.

——. The Self and the Not-Self. San Francisco, CA: Universal Brotherhood Temple and School of Eastern Philosophy, 1927.

2295

Vedanta Centre and Ananda Ashrama

Box 8555
La Crescenta, CA 91224-0555

The Ananda Ashram of La Crescenta, California and the Vedanta Centre of Cohasset, Massachusetts, continue the work begun in the early twentieth century by Swami Paramananda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. Paramananda was born Suresh Chandra Guha Thakurta (1884-1940). A pioneer swami of the Ramakrishna Order, he came to the United States in 1906 to assist Swami Abhedananda at the New York Vedanta Society. In 1909, he moved to Boston, to open a Vedanta center there. He also established a monastic community for American women. His first disciple was Laura Glenn, better known by her religious name, Sister Devamata. She became his platform assistant in 1910, but is best remembered for her literary work. She wrote many books, edited both Swami Vivekananda's and Swami Paramananda's lectures, and was the chief editor of the Message of the East, a monthly periodical published without interruption for 52 years.

During his 34-year ministry in the United States, Paramananda lectured all over the United States and Europe. He established the Ananda Ashrama in La Crescenta in 1923 and a second ashrama in Cohasset in 1929. In 1931, Sree Ramakrishna Ananda Ashrama was established in his name in Dacca, now in Bangladesh. This ashrama was moved to Calcutta after the partition of the nation. There are now two branches which serve destitute women, orphan children, and other students. During Paramananda's lifetime, all of these centers were part of the Ramakrishna Math (monastery) and Mission whose headquarters are at Belur Math, near Calcutta.

After Paramananda's death in 1940, his centers were excommunicated from the parent order because he left as his designated successor, an Indian woman, Srimata Gayatri Devi (1906-1995). She had come to the United States in 1926 and had become the first Indian woman to teach Vedanta in the West. In 1952, she consolidated the eastern work by moving the Boston Vedanta Center to the ashrama in Cohasset, some 20 miles south of Boston. Beliefs. The ashrama and center teach Vedanta. The essence of Vedanta's tenets are that Truth or God is One without a second; that an individual's real nature is divine; that all paths ultimately lead to the same goal; and that the purpose of human life is to realize God within one's own soul. It shares these beliefs with the Ramakrishna Order, the break between the ashrama and the order being purely administrative.

Organization. For 55 years, until her death in 1995, Srimata Gavatri Devi was the spiritual mother of the several ashrams in the United States and India. She appointed an American woman, Srimata Sudha Puri Devi (b.1942), (Dr. Susan Schrager) as her successor. The ashramas are home to monastic women. Associated with them are number of dedicated householders who consider them their spiritual home. Many others attend the weekly services and classes. Vedanta Centre (Cohasset) publishes the books of Swami Paramananda and several of the female leaders: Sister Daya (Georgina Walton Jones), and Srimata Gayatri Devi, in addition to casettes and CDs of ashrama devotional music.

Membership: Neither the ashrama nor the center are membership organizations. There are approximately 60 residents of the four ashramas (two in India and two in America). In addition, an estimated 1,500 persons look to the ashramas for their spiritual nurture.

Sources:

Devamata, Sister. Swami Paramananda and His Work. 2 vols. La Crescenta, CA: Ananda Ashrama, 1926-41.

Devi, Srimata Gayatri. One Life's Pilgrimage. Cohasset, MA Vedanta Centre, 1977.

Hold Aloft the Light. La Crescenta, CA: Ananda Ashrama, 1973.

Levinsky, Sara Ann. A Bridge of Dreams. West Stockbridge, MA: Inner Traditions, 1984.

Paramananda, Swami. The Path of Devotion. Boston, MA: Vedanta Center, 1907.

——. Vedanta in Practice. Boston, MA: Vedanta Center, 1917.

2296

Vedantic Center

3528 N. Triunfo Canyon Rd.
Agoura, CA 91301

The Vedantic Center was founded in 1975 in Los Angeles by Alice Coltrane (b. 1937), an initiate of Swami Satchidananda, founder of the Integral Yoga International, with whom she journeyed in India and Sri Lanka. Raised in Detroit, Coltrane devoted her early life to music, as did her late husband, jazz musician John Coltrane, and like him attained a high level of success and fame. In 1968 at the age of 31, she entered a period described as a time of both spiritual isolation and re-awakening. Directly from the Supreme Lord, she also received an initiation into the renounced order of sannyas, but was instructed not to don the ochre robe, symbolic of the renounced life, until 1975. During the early 1970s she did a series of records expressing her spiritual pilgrimage and devotional life.

In 1975 Coltrane emerged as Swami Turiyasangitananda. A few months later, she organized the Vedantic Center. She authored several books, including Monument Eternal and Endless Wisdom, and began to build a following. In 1983 the center purchased 48 acres of land in rural southern California near the town of Agoura and established a community, Sai Anantam Ashram, for the center's members.

The Vedantic Center is unique in that it is one of the very few Hindu organizations drawing members predominantly from the American black community and led by a black person (though there are predominantly black centers within large and otherwise predominantly non-black Hindu groups). While beginning with the yoga system passed to her by Swami Satchidananda, Turiyasangitananda has developed an eclectic blend of Eastern philosophy which draws upon Western spiritual traditions as well. She teaches that the purpose of human life is to advance spiritually. The highest stage of life is devotional service (bhakti yoga), rendered unto the Supreme Lord (known in his three aspects as Brahma, Vishnu or Krishna, and Siva). In this light, devotional singing has attained an important role at the ashram, and Turiyasangitananda has composed new music with a decidedly Western flavor for the traditional bhajans (devotional songs).

The weekly schedule at Sai Anantam Ashram begins with Sunday school for children. There is worship, including chanting and satsang discourses by Swami Turiyasangitananda, on Sunday afternoons. A prayer service occurs on Wednesday evening. The center operates a bookstore at the entrance to the ashram grounds.

Membership: As of 1995 approximately 30 people live at Sai Anantam. A small number of non-residents also attend the ashram's worship services.

Periodicals: Sai Anantam.

Sources:

Turiyasangitananda, A. C. Endless Wisdom. Los Angeles: Avatar Book Institute, 1981.

——. Monument Eternal. Los Angeles: Vedantic Book Press, 1977.

2297

Vedantic Cultural Society

(Defunct)

The Vedantic Cultural Society was formed in 1983 by Hansadutta Swami (a.k.a. Hans Kary), a former initiating guru with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). During the late 1970s, Hansadutta had been the subject of strong criticism by the other gurus in ISKCON because of his unorthodox fund raising, administrative, and recruiting activities. In the spring of 1980, he was arrested for possession of illegal firearms. While the charges were later dropped, his advocacy of survivalism and his possession of a number of weapons led to his being sent to India for a year. After consideration of the sacred nature of the relationship of initiating guru and his disciples (which constituted most of the Berkeley temple), the governing council reinstated him. However, his return to Berkeley did not ease the tension, and in 1983 ISKCON excommunicated Hansadutta. He left and took most of the Berkeley temple with him, forming the Vedantic Cultural Society. Hansadutta's troubles did not end with the break from ISKCON. In September of 1983, he was arrested and accused of shooting out several store windows in Berkeley. Several weapons and empty shells were found in his car. Following this incident, Hansadutta assumed a low profile. The Berkeley temple returned to ISKCON and the rural center was sold. Hansadutta has applied for reinstatement in ISKCON.

Membership: The Center has several hundred members, all in Berkeley and in one rural center.

Sources:

Hansadutta, Swami. The Book, What the Black Sheep Said. Berkeley, CA: Hansa Books, 1985.

——. The Hammer for Smashing Illusion. Berkeley, CA: Hansa Books, 1983.

——. Kirtan. Berkeley, CA: Hansa Books, 1984.

2298

Vimala Thakar, Friends of

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Alternate Address: International address: Vimala Thakar Foundation, Huizerweg 46, 1261 Az Balricum, Holland.

Vimala Thakar is a teacher in the tradition of Jiddu Krishnamurti. For several years she was a disciple of Vinoba Bhave. Bhave, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, initiated a voluntary land reform program in 1951. He traveled the length and breadth of India to solicit land from large landowners to give to the landless. The program failed, however, when it was recognized that the land actually transferred to new owners was almost worthless agriculturally. After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Nagpur University, Thakar traveled the country as an exponent of the Land Gift Movement.

In 1956, a chance meeting with Krishnamurti began to change Thakar's life. She encountered him several times over the next five years and absorbed his message of the need for total inward revolution or transformation. She resigned from the Land Gift Movement and began to travel, teaching and lecturing about her experience and its implications. She advocated the meditative life, which begins in the observance and transcendence of mental processes. Meditation is seen not as an activity but as the state of total being where there is no movement; a dimension of full life.

Thakar's travels in Europe and America during the 1960s drew followers who organized the Vimala Thakar Foundation (much on the pattern of the Krishnamurti Foundation) in Holland and a group of Friends of Vimala Thakar formed in California. There organizations facilitate lecture tours, publish and distribute books and tapes of Thakar's lectures, and organize conferences. As with Krishnamurti, the structure is minimal, since Thakar wishes to speak as an individual teacher rather than the representative of an organization.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Contact with Vimala Thakar. Available from Vimala Thakar Foundation, Huizerweg 46, 1261 AZ Balricum, Holland.

Sources:

Thakar, Vimala. On an Eternal Voyage. Ahmedabad, India: New Order Book Co., 1972.

——. Totality in Essence. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971.

——. Towards Total Transformation. Berkeley, CA: Friends of Vimala Thakar, 1970.

——. Why Meditation?. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.

"Vimala Thakar Speaks on Yoga." Yoga Journal (March/April 1977).

2299

Vivekananda Vedanta Society

5423 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60615

Alternate Address: International headquarters: Ramakrishna Math and Mission, PO Belur Math, Dr. Howrah. W. Bengel 711 202 India.

A branch of the Ramakrisna Math and Mission, the Vivekananda Vedanta Society (formerly listed as the Vedanta Society) is the only Hindu body established in America before 1900, and as such has had a greater impact on America than any other Hindu group. The society grew out of the vision of Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) and the work of his prime disciple, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902).

Ramakrishna was a priest in a Calcutta temple of Kali, one of several forms in which God is worshiped as Universal Mother in popular Hinduism. Through long meditation and intense yearning for direct experience of the divine, he attained the state of samadhi, or God-consciousness. Continuous samadhi became his goal, and he followed a number of sadhanas, or paths to enlightenment, both within and outside the Hindu tradition. He became convince that: 1) the Divine Mother wished him to remain on the threshold between the Absolute and the relative in order to serve as an instrument for the spiritual uplift of humanity, and 2) all religions (including Hinduism) were different paths to the same goal, and all gods were different aspects of the same Godhead.

A number of disciples, some of them college-trained intellectuals, gathered around Ramakrisha. Before his death some revered him as an avatar, or divine incarnation. Vivekananda, commissioned by Ramakrishna, forged the younger disciples into a monastic brotherhood and gradually convinced them that as Ramakrishna's follows they had a mission not only to seek enlightenment but also to work to alleviate the suffering of humanity through spiritual ministration and social service.

In 1893, Vivekananda came to America to teach the universal religion realized by Ramakrishna. He took the World Parliament of Religions by storm, and for two years he lectured throughout the United States, gathering followers. In November 1894 the Vedanta Society of New York was formed, and in the next few years centers were added in San Francisco and Boston. Each is autonomous but works under the Ramakrishna Order. In 1897 Vivekananda returned to India and organized the Ramakrishna Mission, dedicated to serving humanity in a spirit of worship of the divine dwelling within each person.

The central ideas of Vedanta monistic philosophy can be summarized in three propositions:

1. Brahman, or God, is the underlying unity manifested in all. Each person in essence is divine, and the goal of human life is to realize this divinity with oneself and in all others. This realization is the true basis of unselfishness, as the divine unity is the basis of love.

2. Maya, the illusion of individual separateness, is an interpretation by the mind. We perceive variety rather than the underlying unity because of the condition of our mind, its prejudices, desires, and fears. Absolute reality can be known even in this life through the purified mind: this has been verified by the great mystics of all religions.

3. The mind may be purified by a variety of means, and each person's spiritual life evolves according to his or her mental makeup. Four basic yogas or spiritual disciplines have been codified by Vivekananda: devotion, intellectual discrimination, unselfish work, and psychic control. These correspond to the four basic aspects of the human mind: the emotional, intellectual, active, and reflective. The predominance of one or more of these in an individual determines what path that person should follow.

Vedanta differs from most other Hindu movements in that it stresses principles over personalities. Vivekananda and his successors have emphasized the universal teachings of Vedanta rather than the personality of Ramakrishna. At the same time, freedom is given to the individual follower to worship Ramakrishna or any prophet of any religion as a means to enlightenment. Instruction by a qualified teacher is strongly recommended, although too much emphasis on the personality of the teacher is recognized as a danger. Vedanta's intellectual approach to Hinduism has found expression in the publication of numerous books, including popular editions of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Yoga Aphorism of Pataniali. Through these, it has stimulated interest in Hinduism among many thinking people. Gerald Heard, Aldous Huxley, and Christopher Isherwood all had a well known interest in Vedanta. The society's Internet site is at www.vedantasocietychicago.org.

Membership: In 2002 the society reported a membership of 250, plus approximately 2,000 contacts. Other centers, with additional members, are located in New York and Stone Ridge, New York; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; Seattle, Washington; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Bourne End, Buckshire, England; Gretz, France; Kanagawa ken, Japan; Amstelveen, Netherlands; Moscow, Russia; and Switzerland.

Periodicals: Prabudda Bharata (Awakened India). Send orders to 5 Dehi Entally Rd., Calcutta, India 700 014. • Global Vedanta. Send orders to Vedanta Society of Western Washington, 2716 Broadway E., Seattle, WA 98102.

Sources:

Gambhrananda, Swami. History of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1957.

Isherwood, Christopher. Ramakrishna and His Disciples. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965.

—— ed. Vedanta for the Western World. New York: Viking Press, 1945.

Johnson, Clive, ed. Vedanta. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.

Rolland, Romain. The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1970.

2300

VRINDA/The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies

4138 NW 23 Rd. Ave.
Miami, FL 33143

VRINDA (The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies) was founded in 1984 by Srila Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Maharaja (b. 1954). A German, Swami Paramadvaiti joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1971 in Dusseldorf, and eventually became a temple president. ISKCON's founder, Swami Prahbupada (1896-1977), ISKCON's founder, sent him to South America to pioneer the Society on the continent. He found his greatest success in Colombia.

In the year following Prabupada's death, he developed a primary relationship with Srila Sridhar Maharaja, a Vaisnava guru (and one of Prabhupada's god brothers) in India and took his sannyas vows (the renounced life) from him. Having broken with ISKCON in 1984 he founded both ISEV (Instituto Superior de Estudios Vedicos) and VRINDA (The Vrindavan Institute for Vaisnava Culture and Studies). He brougth a variety of centers (ashrams, farms, cultural centers, schools, etc.) in Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Peru into the new organization which subsequently spread to countries in Central and North America and to Europe (Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Switzerland).

In 1990, VRINDA established it first center in in India, and later opened a World Center opened in Vrinda Kunja. In Vrindavan, VRINDA opened the first Gaudiya Vaisnava Bookstore from which books and materials from all of the groups in the Krishna Consciousness tradition were distributed. VRINDA has committed itself to translating and publishing books in a variety of languages, especially German and Spanish.

VRINDA is a member of the World Vaisnava Association.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti. Our Family the Gaudiya Math. Posted at http://www.vrindavan.org/English/Books/GMconded.html. 23 April 2002.

——. "The Temple President." http://www.vrindavan.org/bap/index.html. 1 October 2001.

VRINDA. http://www.vrindavan.org/. 23 April 2002.

2301

World Community

Rte. 4, Box 265
Bedford, VA 24523

In 1970 Vasudevadas, also known as Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid, and his wife, Devaki-Ma founded Prema Dharmasala as a yoga ashram for dedicated lay-disciples and renunciates and the World Community as a community of householders and families who looked to Vasudevadas/Rashid as their spiritual teacher. Throughout the 1970s Prema Dharmasala functioned as the main training center for those who had made a commitment to a life of renunciation and service to God and the human family. However, in the early 1980s, a shift of emphasis to the World Community occurred as a vision of a community to function as a symbol of the oneness of Truth and the transforming power of Prem (Divine Love) emerged. By 1984, Prema Dharmasala had been completely superceded by the Prema World Community.

Rashid is a pir of five Sufi orders: Mujaddidiyya, Naqshbandiyya, Chishtiyya, Qadriyya, and Shadiliyya. He introduces innovative learning methods and heps to integrate Islamic values into mainstream curricula.

As developed, the World Community will be located on the acreage previously occupied by the Prema Dharmasala. Centered upon a large Temple of All Religion will be a series of interrelated villages for various types of individuals, an educational center, a holistic health clinic, and a research and training center for the New Age. The outlines of the emerging plan has remained open to allow for new insight as members become more attuned to Truth.

Rashid and the World Community's Internet site is at http:/www.circlegroup.org.

Membership: In 2002 the community reported 150 members.

Sources:

Love Offerings at Thy Lotus Feet. Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala, 1975.

Vasudevadas. Running Out of Time and Who Is Watching? Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala Fellowship, 1979.

——. A Time for Eternity. Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala and Fellowship Association, 1976.

——. Vasudevadas Speaks to Your Heart. Bedford, VA: Prema Dharmasala and Fellowship Association, 1976.

2302

World Community Service

1021 E. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91501

World Community Service was founded in 1911 in Madras, India, by Yogiraj Vethathiri Maharaj, a successful businessman and teacher of kundalini yoga. Vethathiri was born in southern India into a family of weavers. While still a child he sought an education and also placed himself under a spiritual teacher. Very early in his development, he rejected the impersonal monism taught by many forms of Hinduism and became a devotee of Vinayaka, a Hindu deity. His own reflections upon his devotional activity led him to the conviction that God was without shape or form. At the age of eighteen he moved to Madras to continue his education and later to start his own business manufacturing cloth.

At some point after World War II, Vethathiri met Swami Paranjothi, a teacher of kundalini yoga and founder of the Temple of Universal Peace in Madras. The practice of kundalini yoga brought together the religious speculations which had held much of his attention throughout his life. He soon discovered that he could project the kundalini energy into others (shaktipat) and do good for others. In 1958, Vethathiri established the World Community Service in Madras. Three years later he moved the headquarters to his home town of Guduvancheri, from whence it spread throughout India.

Vethathiri teaches Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY), a process of arousing the latent kundalini force in each individual, generally pictured as resting like a coiled serpent as the base of the spine and bringing enlightenment. SKY is able to bypass the laborious techniques traditionally considered integral to kundalini yoga, and through shaktipat, Vethathiri is able to arouse the kundalini and teach the student how to control the working of the energy, a process called shanti yoga. Once having mastered shanti yoga, the aspirant can have the kundalini fully aroused by Vethathiri through a process called turiya yoga and experience a state of tranquility and blissfulness. Finally, the aspirant is led into a still higher state of consciousness, turiyateetha yoga, in which the individual consciousness is merged with the Infinite.

Vethathiri made his first visit to the United States in 1972 at the invitation of the younger brother of the leader of the New Delhi World Community Service Center. He resided in Bound Brook, New Jersey, where Vethathiri gave his first American lectures and organized the first American World Community Service Centre. The organization spread along the east coast primarily through the Indian-American community. Since the organization of the centre, Vethathiri has made annual visits to the United States and centres have been established across America.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Vethathiri, Yogiraj. Physical Transformation of Soul. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 1982.

——. Sex and Spiritual Development. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 1982.

——. The Story of My Life. Madras, India: Vethathiri Publications, 1982.

2303

World Plan Executive Council-US

PO Box 370
Lake Shandelee Rd.
Livingston Manor, NY 12758

The World Plan Executive Council is one of several organizations in this Encyclopedia that claim they are not a religious group and hence should not be included in such a volume. Critics of the council and of the technique it teaches to those affiliated with Transcendental Meditation (TM), have argued forcefully that it is a religion, some going so far as to charge the council with hiding its religious nature in order to deceive the public and gain some benefits available only to nonreligious organizations in the West. Some of these critics took their case to court and in 1978, the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, ruled that the practice of TM was religious in nature and banned the teaching of TM in the public schools of New Jersey. Subsequently, the teaching of TM was dropped from other programs supported by public funds.

In response, the World Plan Executive Council has argued that the 1978 court decision was a mistake and draws attention to the specific nature of the practice of TM and the extensive scientific research on TM which has been completed and published in reputable journals. It also argues that its basic theoretical base, the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI), was formulated as a scietific theory, not a religious teaching. Also, it notes the participation of people of many religions, even leaders of various religions, who not only practice TM, but are instructors for the council.

The argument between the council and its critics goes to the very heart of the ongoing discussion of the definition of religion in both the academic and the legal use of the term. Nor is it the task of this Encyclopedia to decide the issue, both sides of which have strong arguments. It has been decided to continue the entry on the council simply because the court has placed it on the religious agenda and inquiries concerning TM still emerge in the context of the growth of Eastern religious practice in the West. It is, in fact, impossible to tell the story of the rise of Hinduism in America without reference to TM, which participated in the initial wave of Indian teaching to come to America following World War II. However, the author is happy to acknowledge the contrary opinion of the council.

The founder of TM (or rather the modern rediscover) was Guru Dev, but its real exponent has been Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who spent 13 years in seclusion with Guru Dev, and upon Guru Dev's death, came forth in 1958 to tell the world about TM. Prior to his life of meditation, he had obtained a B.S. in physics at Allahabad University. In 1959 he made his first world tour, which brought him to the United States. His movement grew slowly until the mid-1960s when some popular entertainers (the Beatles, Mia Farrow, Jane Fonda) identified with it.

In 1972 Maharishi announced the World Plan, the overall strategy which guides the movement and from which the council takes its name. The goal of the world plan is to share the Science of Creative Intelligence with the whole world. The immediate objective of the plan is to establish 3,600 World Plan centers (one for each million people on earth) and to staff each center with 1,000 teachers (one for each thousand people on earth.) The ultimate goal is to bring the Age of Enlightenment.

To carry out its agenda, the World Plan Executive Council has organized into five task-oriented structures. The International Meditation Society is the main structure for introducing the general public to TM. The Spiritual Regeneration Movement works with the "older" generation, i.e., people over thirty, while the Student International Meditation Society targets the campus population. Maharishi International University is a four-year university that offers both bachelor's and master's degrees, with instruction based on presenting traditional material with a TM perspective. The university is in Fairfield, Iowa. The American Foundation for the Science of Creative Intelligence is working within the business community.

In 1976 Maharishi created the World Government of the Age of Enlightenment, described as a nonpolitical global organization that "enjoys sovereignty in the domain of consciousness" and "activity in the eternally dynamic silence of the unified field of all of the forces of nature." The World Government became a momentary object of attention in 1983 when Maharishi offered its services to the world's governments to assist them in solving their problems.

The essence of TM is a form of japa yoga-meditation with a mantra, a sound constantly repeated silently during meditation and upon which the meditator concentrates. Each individual begins his process of meditation with initiation. At that time, he is given an individual mantra for his/her own use and which is not to be revealed to others. The mantra may be given by Maharishi, but most often today is given by a certified TM instructor. The initiation ceremony, during which members repeat a number of "prayers" to Hindu deities and offer veneration to a long line of gurus, became a foundation block in the case built by critics claiming TM was a religious practice.

The overall perspective of the council is spelled out in Maharishi's book, The Science of Being and the Art of Living, in which a complete cosmology is presented. According to Maharishi, underneath the universe is the absolute field of pure being– unmanifested and transcendental. Being is the ultimate reality of creation. The science of being teaches how to contact ultimate reality. TM is the tool. Once the meditation begins, one starts to "live the being" and the council offers instruction on correct thinking, speaking, acting, and health. The goal is Godrealization. Maharishi's teaching is "the summation of the practical wisdom of the integrated life as advanced by the Vedic Rishis of ancient India." That is to say, the ultimate goal of TM is to "achieve the spiritual goals of mankind in this generation."

Currently, Maharishi has no legal affiliation to the World Plan Executive Council. He is looked upon as the founder of TM and the Science of Creative Intelligence. Through his books, taped lectures, and constant presence in picture and thought, he still dominates the organization.

Important to the establishment of TM as a popular practice have been the council's encouragement of widespread research and documentation of its effects. To date more than 500 research studies have been completeed at universities and colleges in more than 25 nations. Many of these have been published in academic journals and later reprinted and circulated by the movement. Such studies document the role of the practice of TM in (among other things) curbing alcohol and drug abuse, assisting in the rehabilitation of criminals and delinquents, increasing productivity on the job, producing a more healthy body, improving athletic performance, and raising intelligence quotients.

Growth of TM during the early 1970s was rapid and widespread media coverage helped provide openings in the business world, the Army, and the school system. Growth began to slow in the mid-1970s and decreased rapidly following the 1977 court decision. That same year TM announced its siddha program, a course in advanced techniques that allowed the student to gain various supernormal capacities including levitation, invisibility, mastery over nature, and fulfillment of all desires. The overall goal was the creation of the Age of Enlightement. While many signed up for the course, it caused attacks from many who argued that it was impossible to produce the advertised results. In 1987 a former TM instructor sued the organization over the siddha claims and was granted a $138,000 judgement.

During the 1980s, the council has continued to extend its programs into broader areas of life. In the late 1980s, a major promotional program for Ayurvedic medicine was launched and the Maharishi Center for Ayur-Veda opened in Fairfield, Iowa (adjacent to the university). The center's directors have introduced "Maharishi Amrit Kalesh" as an herbal supplement. It is being marketed by Maharishi Ayurvedic Products International. Most recently, the council had sponsored the establishment of the Natural Law Party, a political party active in the United States and several European countries. The Natural Law Party offers the council's program to the electorate as an alternative to traditional political party platforms.

Membership: Not reported. By 1984 more than 1,000,000 people had taken basic TM courses in the United States; many of those, however, are not continuing to practice TM. In 1978, the organization had more than 7,000 authorized teachers and 400 teaching centers. Researchers have noted that TM peaked in 1976 when it initiated 292,273 people. By the end of that year, however, it had begun a radical decline. In 1977 it initiated only 50,000.

Educational Facilities: Maharishi International University, Fair-field, Iowa.

Periodicals: MIU World. Send orders to 1000 N. 4th St., DB 1155, Fairfield, IA 52557-1155. • Modern Science and Vedic Science.

Sources:

Bainbridge, William Sims, and Daniel H. Jackson. "The Rise and Decline of Transcendental Meditation." Edited by Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.

Bloomfield, Harold H., Michael Peter Cain, and Dennis T. Jaffe. TM, Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress. New York: Delacorte Press, 1975.

Carrey, Normand J., and Lynn A. Suess. TM and Cult Mania. North Quincy, MA: Christopher Publishing House, 1980.

Ebon, Martin, ed. Maharishi, the Guru. New York: New American Library, 1968.

Goldhaber, Nat. TM: An Alphabetical Guide to the Transcendental Meditation Program. New York: Ballantine Books, 1976.

Lewis, Gordon R. Transcendental Meditation. Glendale, CA: G/L Regal Books, 1975.

Jefferson, William. The Story of the Maharishi. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi. Life Supported by Natural Law. Washington, DC: Age of Enlightenment Press, 1986.

——. Love and God. Age of Enlightenment Press, 1973.

——. The Science of Being and Art of Living. London: International SRM Publications, 1966.

Orme-Johnson, David W., and John T. Farrows, eds. Scientific Research on the Tradscendental Meditation Program: Collected Papers, I. Seelisberg, Switzerland: Maharishi European Research University Press, 1977.

Patton, John E. The Case Against TM in the Schools. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976.

Scott, R. D. Transcendental Misconceptions. San Diego, CA: Beta Books, 1978.

White, John. Everything You Want to Know About TM, Including How to Do It. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

2304

Yasodhara Ashram Society

Box 9
Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada V0B 1X0

Yasodhara Ashram Society was founded by Swami Sivananda (1911-1995) (Sylvia Hellman, a German-born Canadian citizen). In her forties, while meditating, she saw the face of Swami Sivananda Saraswati in a vision. She traveled to India, was initiated as a sanyasin (renuciate) by Sivananda into the Saraswati (monastic) Order in 1956. At Sivananda's direction, she returned to Canada to update the Eastern teachings for for the Western mind. From 1956 to 1963, the Ashram was in Vancouver, but then was moved to Kootenay Bay, in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia.

Swami Radha expanded the teachings of yoga to include Western psychology and symbolism in order to create a bridge of understanding between East and West. Unique to Swami Radha were numerous practical techniques that help to bring quality into daily living and to expand consciousness. She is one of the foremost authorities on Kundalini yoga. The ashram offers courses on many different aspects of yoga, retreat packages for groups and individuals, and a three-month personal growth intensive each winter. The Temple of Divine Light Dedicated to All Religions was completed in 1992. Connected with the ashram is the Association for the Development of Human Potential, also founded by Swami Radha and the ashram's publishing arm, Timeless Books, both located in Spokane, Washington.

Membership: In 2002, the Ashram reported 108 members. There are also affiliated centers, called Radha Houses, across Canada and the United States, as well as in England and Europe.

Educational Facilities: Yasodhara Ashram Society Centre, Kootenay Bay, British Columbia.

Periodicals: Ascent.

Sources:

Radha, Sivannada. Gods Who Walk the Rainbow. Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1981.

——. Hatha Yoga, Hidden Language. Port Hill, ID: Timeless Books, 1987.

——. Kundalini, Yoga for the West. Spokane, WA: Timeless Books, 1978.

——. Mantras, Words of Power. Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1980.

——. Radha, Diary of a Woman's Search. Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1981.

2305

Yoga House Ashram

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Yoga House Ashram was founded in the mid-1970s by Vimalananda (b. 1942), a former leader of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. Dadaji, as he is affectionately known, was born in Badwel, South India, of a Brahmin family. At the age of six he had an intense initiation experience of divine light filling his room and a voice instructing him on the path of enlightenment. He began to pursue the inner life, and at the age of sixteen became an instructor of meditation. In 1962 he met Sri Anandamurti, founder of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society and was impressed with both his spirituality and his program of service to humanity, especially the sick, the elderly, and the poor. In like measure, Anandamurti was impressed with his young disciple and quickly elevated him to a teacher of yoga. In 1966 Dadaji left India to spread Ananda Marga. He was responsible for starting centers in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malasia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. The government and the United Nations honored him for his efforts on behalf of the victims of the 1968 earthquake that struck Manila.

In 1969 Dadaji came to the United States and assisted in the spread of Ananda Marga. However, in the mid-1970s he left Ananda Marga and founded the Yoga House Ashram. Since that time he has spent his time creating his own following in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Dadaji came to the United States with a strong desire to bridge the gap between East and West. He teaches a traditional yoga but has retained the emphasis upon social action he found in Ananda Marga. He teaches his students to keep their role in society as they strive for God.

Membership: Not reported. The work of the Yoga House Ashram is confined to northern California where Dadaji Vimalananda teaches yoga at a variety of locations in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

Sources:

Vimalananda, Dadaji. Yogamritam (The Nectar of Yoga). San Rafael, CA: Yoga House Ashram, 1977.

2306

Yoga Research Foundation

6111 SW 74th Ave.
Miami, FL 33143

Alternate Address: Indian headquarters: International Yoga Society, Lal Bagh, Loni–201 102, Ghazlabad, U.P., India.

Swami Jyotirmayananda (b. 1931) is a learned teacher who began his religious pilgrimage in the ascetic life, emerged into teaching and editing, and became a leading figure at Swami Sivananda Saraswati's Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. He came to America in 1962 and founded the Sanantan Dharma Mandir with headquarters in Puerto Rico. The headquarters were moved to Miami under the present name in 1969. Jyotirmayananda teaches integral yoga. He has developed a vast publishing program centered on his many books, cassettes, and monthly magazine.

Membership: In 1995 the foundation reported approximately 2,000 active members. There is one center in Miami and one near Delhi, India. The foundation considers the subscribers to the magazine and recipients of the International Yoga Guide to be members.

Periodicals: International Yoga Guide. • Integral Light.

Sources:

Jyotir Maya Nanda, Swami. The Way to Liberation. Miami, FL: Swami Lalitananda, 1976.

——. Yoga Can Change Your Life. Miami, FL: International Yoga Society, 1975.

——. Yoga in Life. Miami, FL: Swami Jyotir Maya Nanada, 1973.

——. Yoga of Sex-Sublimation, Truth and Non-violence. Miami, FL: Swami Lalitananda, 1974.

——. Yoga Vasistha. Miami, FL: Yoga Research Society, 1977.

2307

Yoganta Meditation Center

(Defunct)

The Yoganta Meditation Center was a small eclectic community based upon the concept of spiritual growth through a variety of meditative and yogic techniques. The center provided residential facilities where adherents could practice their own discipline for an extended time. There was no guru; the belief was that the exchange of personal experiences would benefit all.

Seminars were irregularly offered on such topics as mantras, hatha yoga, meditation and miscellaneous psychic topics. A quarterly journal, The Yoganta Center Newsletter, was published. During the 1970s there are approximately ten to fifteen residents at the center located at Nederland, Colorado.

2308

Yogi Gupta Association

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Yogi Gupta, born in Kanpur in North India, was a lawyer who left his profession to become a monk in the sannyasa order in Banaras. At that time, he was renamed Swami Kailashananda and became a major teacher of hatha and karma yoga. He also founded the Kailashananda Mission at Rishikesh. Basic to Yogi Gutpa's teaching is hatha yoga with its various postures (asanas). Hatha is the entrance into various other disciplines including psychic development, vegetarianism and yogic philosophy. Through yoga one can learn self-mastery and achieve the many goals of life happiness, success and freedom. Yogi Gupta first came to the United States in 1954. He founded a center in New York City which is an outpost of the Indian centers.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Gupta, Yogi. Shradha and Heavenly Fathers. New York: Yogi Gupta New York Center, n.d.

——. Yoga and Long Life. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1958.

——. Yoga and Yogic Powers. New York: Yogi Gupta New York Center, 1963.

2309

Yogiraj Sect

(Defunct)

Swami Swanandashram was born in Calcutta in 1921 and in his youth became a yogi. In college he was a student of philosophy, mathematics and sanskrit. In 1950, however, he renounced all possessions and for twenty years lived in a cave at Gangotri. He was initiated in the Shankaracharya Order and is now head of the Yogiraj Sect. In 1970, Swanandashram emerged from his cave and began a public ministry to teach a way of oneness with God through yoga. In his teaching, the essential reality of the unchangeable God is held up as that which is to be seen behind the transitory illusions of commonplace life. The erroneous identification of the body as the real self is the root of all evil, suffering and death. Yoga is the means to overcome the false identification. During the early 1970s there was one American center of Swanadashram's followers in Easton, Pennsylvania. It was absorbed into the Holy Shankaracharya Order.

Hinduism

views updated May 14 2018

HINDUISM

The word "Hindu" is derived from sindhu, the name that the Persians gave to the land watered by the Indus River. The inhabitants of this land were a pre-Aryan people, possibly related to the Dravidians of South India, who had developed a high civilization, akin to that of Mesopotamia, in the 3d millennium b.c., and of which the remains have been excavated at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in the Punjab. Toward the middle of the 2d millennium b.c., this civilization was overwhelmed by Aryan invaders from the North, who spoke Sanskrit. The invaders brought with them a new religion, of which the sacred books, written in Sanskrit, were known as the Vedas. In the course of time, the religion of the Aryan newcomers blending with the cults of the pre-Aryan population spread all over India and developed into what is known as Hinduism. Nothing in the nature of Hinduism determines a strictly logical approach to the study of it, but the present article will survey its sacred writings, schools of thought, religious teachers, popular religion, relation to the caste system, major reformers, and relation to Christianity.

It is important to note that the "Aryan invasion theory" is now being questioned by scholars. Many scholars have suggested that there is no archaeological evidence that the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were destroyed by Aryan invaders. More significantly, archaeologists have discovered "Harappan sites" dating back to the same period in the Northwestern parts of India.

SACRED WRITINGS

They include the vedas with their different parts known as the Brāhmaas, the Ārayakas, and the upanishads; dharmashāstras or collections of "remembered" traditions; and two major epics, the Rāmāyaa and the Mahābhārata with its subsequently added Bhagavad Gītā.

Vedic Scriptures. Hindus speak of their religion as the "eternal religion" (sanātana dharma ), asserting that the Vedas are the expression of eternal truth, made known to the "seers" (rishis ) of ancient times. Veda means literally knowledge or wisdom, and the Vedas are said to be śruti (literally, "that which has been heard") to signify that they came as revelation. The acceptance of this revelation is the test of Hindu "orthodoxy." All systems of philosophy based on the Vedas, however much they may differ in their interpretation, are considered to be orthodox (āstika ), while those that reject the authority of the Vedas, such as Buddhism and Jainism, are regarded as unorthodox (nāstika ).

Originally the Vedas came down by word of mouth, and it is impossible to say exactly when they took their present shape. The earliest collection of hymns, known as the Rig Veda, was probably completed by 900 b.c. Later a collection of verses (mantras ) from these hymns, arranged for chanting at the sacrifices, was added and known as the Sāma Veda. Another collection of prose formulas followed; it was used in the ritual of sacrifice and known as the Yajur Veda. Finally at a much later date a further compilation appeared, namely, the Atharva Veda, containing magic spells and incantations. To these original four books of the Vedas three additions were made between 900 and 500 b.c.: first the Brāhmaas, a kind of prose commentary explaining the symbolic significance of the rites; then the Arayakas (or "forestbooks"); and finally the Upanishads, in which a mystical commentary on the rites was developed into profound and original philosophical speculation. Each Veda eventually consisted of four parts: a hymn (mantra ), a brāhmaa, an ārayaka, and an Upanishad, and these together form the corpus of sacred doctrine or śruti.

The hymns of the Rig Veda were addressed to gods who represented different powers of nature, such as Sūrya, the sun-god; Agni, the fire-god; Indra, the god of thunder; and Uas, the goddess of the dawn. They reflect a stage of religion not unlike that of the early Greeks, and many of them have a poetic character, which is reminiscent of the poems of Homer. Moreover, behind the lesser gods there is to be discerned the figure of a creator-god, who was known at first as Dyaus-pita (the equivalent of the Greek Zeus and the Latin Jupiter), but later his place was taken by Varuna, whom some have connected with the Greek Uranos. Varuna was a sky-god, who was worshiped as the sovereign Lord and guardian of the cosmic order (zita ). Unlike that of the other gods his character was moral, and he officiated as the supreme judge who sees all and punishes the sinner. Although for a while his place was taken by Prajāpati, the "lord of creatures" and by Vivakarman, the "all-creator," the image of the creator-god gradually disappeared in the course of time and retained no hold over the Hindu mind. The tendency of Hindu thought, present already in the Rig Veda, was rather to see all the gods as different forms or manifestations of one divine being. In the later hynms of the Rig Veda there are signs even of speculation on the nature of God and the universe. In one hymn, the Purua Sūkta, the universe is said to have been formed by the sacrifice of Purua, the primeval or cosmic Person, and to have been produced from the different parts of his body.

The Brāhmaas. The center of the ancient Vedic religion was sacrifice. At public sacrifices animals were slaughtered and an intoxicating drink called soma was drunk, to obtain from the gods such favors as success in war, offspring, increase of cattle, and long life. Behind this lay a deeper conception than that of seeking favors. Every sacrifice was held to be a repetition of the primeval sacrifice by which the world was brought into being; the continuation of the world was believed to depend on the exactness of the performance of the ritual of sacrifice, a concept developed in that part of the Veda called the Brāhmaas. The sacrifice came to be conceived as having power in itself; even the gods were believed to be dependent on it. Thus the position of the priest, the Brahmin, who offered the sacrifice was of supreme importance. He alone knew the sacrificial words and actions, and he therefore was possessed of supreme power. As the sacrificing priest was known as the Brahmin, so the power that was held to be inherent in the sacrifice was known as the Brahman. The Brahman came to be regarded as the supreme power that sustains the universe. This idea, already present in the Brāhmaas, was developed in the Vedic writings called Ārayakas. and in the Upanishads, and became the most fertile concept of Hindu philosophy.

Ārayakas. Sacrifice lost its importance with Ārayakas, which mark a new stage in the growth of the Vedas and in Hindu religion. They were the work of the "forest-dwellers," ascetics who retired to the forest to meditate in silence on the mystery of the universe. For ritual sacrifice they substituted meditation and asceticism (tapas ), developing the idea that the power in the sacrifice, the Brahman, was found in the spiritual sacrifice of the inner man. A new conception of the meaning and purpose of life began to take form with the introduction of the doctrine of transmigration, according to which the souls of all living things, plants and animals and human beings, even the gods, are subject to a perpetual cycle of rebirth (sàmsāra ). The condition of a soul in the present life is rigorously conditioned by the actions of its past life (karma ); by its good deeds the soul ascends in the scale of being, and by its evil deeds it descends; in either case there is no finality. Even the gods must die and be reborn, and though the performance of good works, especially the ritual of sacrifice, could lead to heaven, even heaven is not permanent. Against this background of belief arose the idea of liberation (moksa ). Instead of the perpetuation of the round of rebirth by sacrifice, liberation from rebirth altogether, and deliverance not only from this world but also from the world of the gods with its promised blessings was sought. The goal to reach was the ultimate source of life, the Brahman.

The Upanishads. The word "upanishad" means literally to "sit near to," and was used to signify secret doctrine containing the key to life, handed on from master to disciple. The earliest Upanishads, written in prose, were composed not later than the 6th century b.c. They were followed by others, many of them in verse, until eventually a collection of 108 was made. Of these, the original and fundamental texts numbered only 11. They contain all those profound ideas that were to germinate in the Indian soul and to inspire Hindu religion and philosophy down to the present day.

The teaching of the Upanishads is of a mystical nature. Although in Greek philosophy there is a mystical strain, the Greek genius had a bent for speculative thought; its achievement marks the triumph of human reason. The genius of India on the other hand is for mystical experience. The seers of the Upanishads were seeking not a speculative knowledge of truth attained by reason, but a knowledge that transcends reason, giving an intimate experience of ultimate truth. Their question was, "What is that which, being known, everything is known?" The answer was in the knowledge of the Brahman. Thus from being conceived as the power in the sacrifice that upholds the world, the Brahman had come to be regarded as the supreme power in the universe, to be known by meditation and asceticism. This knowledge of the Brahman was sought in the Upanishads, a knowledge of the ultimate being that is beyond this world and the world of the gods, beyond sense and reason, and that confers liberation (moksa ) and bliss (ānanda ).

The path of this progression of thought is traceable in India's search for the ultimate reality or ground of the universe, first, in the elements of earth, air, fire, and water; then in space (ākāśa ), which embraces all matter. Then they turned to human nature, seeking its essence, the true Self (Ātman ) in breath (prāna ) or life or thought. Finally the discovery was made that the ultimate reality is beyond all these; it is "not this, not this" (neti, neti ). It is a mystery beyond human understanding, which can be known only by direct intuition. Then the supreme discovery of the Upanishads was made. The ultimate ground of reality in nature (Brahman ) is one with the ultimate ground of being in the soul (Ātman ). The Brahman is the Ā tman, or as it is said in one of the great sayings of the Upanishads, "Thou art That." When the ultimate reality is known, it is not by sense or reason but by the soul's direct intuition of itself. In this experience there is no more distinction of subject and object, no "duality."

The conception of the identity of the Brahman and the Ātman was essentially a mystical intuition, one that underlies all Hindu philosophy. The interpretation of it gave rise to many diverse schools of thought. The difficulty is that the Upanishads expressed profound intuitions that were not worked out logically; different systems could be derived from them. Their purpose was not to lead to systematic reasoning but to awaken the intuition of ultimate truth in the heart, and so to lead the hearer to final liberation. There appeared to be conflicting statements in the Upanishads: they declared that the Brahman is not only the source but also the substance of all being: "all this (world) is Brahman. " It was said that just as the spider comes out with its thread or as small sparks come from the fire, so the world comes forth from Brahman. Or again, as all clay pots are the same clay and differ only in their forms, so all things in the universe are Brahman and differ only in their names and forms (nāmarūpa ). Yet again it was said that the Brahman is not to be identified with anything in the universe; it is the "subtle essence" that is in all things but is distinct from them. It is like the soul in the body, the principle of being, life, and thought, yet apart from these.

What the seers of the Upanishads reached was an intuition of an absolute spiritual reality. The Brahman was the principle alike of being and of knowing. It was the plenitude of being, and when all the worlds came forth from it, it was not diminished. It was also the plenitude of knowing, not as that which is known but rather as that which knows. "Who," it was asked, "shall know the knower?" It could not be known by any method of human reason; it could be known only to him to whom it made itself known. As such it was the "controller," the "dweller-within," the inner Self (Ātman ). It was that which was "dearer than all," for the sake of which all other things were to be desired, the bestower of joy and immortality. Thus in the later Upanishads, especially the Svetāvatara (4.11; 6.7), the Brahman took a distinctly personal character. It was known as the Lord (īsā ), the great Person (purua ), and was even given the name of Śiva (the gracious).

Because the Upanishads brought to an end the revelation (śruti ) of the Vedas, they are known as Vedānta (literally, the "end" of the Veda). Although they contain profound insights into the mystery of being, they do not propound a system of thought. They leave unresolved the question of the relation between the personal and the impersonal character in the Brahman and the relation between the world and the Brahman. These questions therefore became the subject of subsequent debate, giving rise to the differing schools of the Vedānta. But in the meantime Hindu religion was to undergo a profound transformation. In the period following the Upanishadsbetween 500 b.c. and a.d. 500their religion was gradually modified by the influence of the local cults. At the same time "unorthodox" doctrines of buddhism and jainism became rivals of Hinduism, and it was only at the end of this period that Hinduism emerged as the religion of the greater part of India.

The Darmashāstras. The writings of this period were known as smrti (literally "that which is remembered") or "tradition" as distinguished from śruti or "revelation." Among them were the law-books (dharmaśāstras ), above all the laws of Manu, which laid down the basic principles on which Hindu society was to be governed. Society was divided into four castes, or more properly "classes" (vara, meaning literally "color"), from which the caste system later developed. The first three classes, the Brahmins (priests), kshatriyas (warriors), and vaishyas (merchants) were known as the "twice-born," because they alone could be initiated into the wisdom of the Vedas. The fourth class, the śūdras (workers), had no right to learning. Yet it was they who in the end were to transform the Hindu religion.

In the dharmaśāstras appeared also the division of an individual's life into four stages (āśramas ). In the first, the student (brahmachārin ) had to study the Vedas at the feet of a master and to observe chastity. The second stage was that of the householder (grhastha ), who was to marry and bring up a family. The third phase was that of the "forest-dweller" (vānaprastha ), which began when a man's hair began to turn grey. He was supposed to leave his home and his wife and go to live in the forest to meditate and do penance for the good of his soul. The last stage was that of the sannyāsi (literally "one who has renounced all"), when he was expected to break all attachments to the world and live as a wanderer begging his way. A great number neglected to put this ideal into practice, but all Hindu society recognized the ideal of complete detachment from the world for the sake of attaining liberation (moksa ). The doctrines of the Āranyakas and the Upanishads had thus been incorporated into the framework of Hindu life.

Four ends of life. The same principle governed the four "ends" of life as they were formulated at this time. The first was pleasure (kāma ) and the second wealth (artha ), both frankly recognized as natural goods and meriting elaborate treatises; the third end was dharma, translated as "law," the basic principle of order in human society. Every man was held to have his proper place with its rights and duties determined largely by his position in the framework of the four classes. The happiness both of the individual and of society was held to depend on the observance of dharma, and the whole of human society was held to be subject to divine law; human activity, economic, social, political, and religious, was given a divine sanction. It was this above everything that stamped a religious character on Hindu society. The fourth end of life was moksa, or liberation from this world. However important the place of worldly pleasure or wealth or worldly duty, the supreme end of life was liberation from this world and enjoyment of the supreme bliss of Brahman. The ideal of the Upanishads thus influenced the whole of Hindu life.

Epics. Of the same period as the dharmaśāstras and reflecting the same order of society were the two great Hindu epics (Itihāsas ), the Rāmāyaa and the Mahābhārata. The original poems were composed probably soon after 500 b.c., but both received numerous interpolations in the course of time and were not completed until the 4th century a.d. They hold a place in literature not unlike that of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The Rāmāyaa. Written traditionally by the sage Vālmāki, the Rāmāyaa is the story of the prince Rāma, who was exiled in the forest with his wife Sītā; she was kidnaped by the demon king, Rāvaa. After many adventures, Rāma killed Rāvana, rescued Sītā, and returned to reign in his kingdom. It is probable that Rāma was a historical person, who lived in the 7th or 8th century b.c. In the original story he was represented as a brave and noble king and Sītā, as a devoted wife. The whole story was impressed with the idea of dharma as the ruling principle of life and with moral idealism. In the later versions of the epic, Rāma was conceived as a divine being, an incarnation of the god Viu, and with this change the story was translated in later times into all the languages of India; the divine hero became the object of a universal cult. To this day Rāma remains one of the names of God to the devout Hindu, and his name was the last word uttered by Mahātmā Gāndhi.

The Mahābhārata. This epic, composed traditionally by Vyasa, is the story of a great battle between the Pāndavas and Kauravas, two families descended from Bharata, one of the ancient kings of North India. In the course of time the epic grew to vast proportions, through the addition of myths and legends, moral stories, fables, and long didactic discourses. In its present form it is said to be the longest poem in the world, consisting of 100,000 stanzas (ślokas ), the whole being more than three times as long as the Bible. In this form it was a kind of encyclopedia of early Hinduism, reflecting the profound changes of the period. The ancient gods of the Vedas had faded into insignificance and two gods, Viu and Śiva, who had been obscure in ancient times, became the principal objects of worship. Not only the object but also the manner of worship had changed. Instead of the ancient Vedic sacrifices of slaughtered animals, offerings of fruit and flowers were made to the images of the temple gods, possibly because of the influences of Buddhism and Jainism. From this time, too, the ideal of never taking life (ahisā ) became a ruling principle of Hinduism. But the most notable change was that the worship of the gods began to take a more personal form.

The Bhagavad Gītā. In the later Upanishads, the Brahman conceived in a personal form had been worshiped under the name of Śiva. Now in the Bhagavad Gītā ("the Song of the Lord"), which was added to the Mahābhārata perhaps around the 2d century b.c., this devotion to a personal God was raised to a high level. The Supreme Being, the Brahman, was represented as Bhagavān, the Lord, to be worshiped not by sacrifices but by personal love and devotion (bhakti ). He was conceived under the name of Viu, who became incarnate, or more exactly "descended" in the form of an avatāra, to deliver the world from unrighteousness (adharma ) and restore righteousness (dharma ). In the original story of the Mahābhārata, Krishna like Rāma was an epic hero, but by the time the Gītā was added he, like Rāma, had come to be regarded as an incarnation of Viu. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gītā, was represented as the Supreme Being (parabrahma ) governing the universe; he was beyond all human conception, and at the same time the Supreme Self (parātman ) dwelling in the heart of every man and manifesting himself by his grace (prasāda ) to those who devoted themselves to him. Thus the Brahman of the Upanishads was transformed into a supreme personal god. Yet just as in the Upanishads there was no clear distinction made between the creator and the creature, so in the Gītā, Krishna was never clearly distinguished from nature and the souls in which he dwelt. This was the problem that was to occupy different schools of the Vedānta in their interpretation of both the Upanishads and the Gītā.

The Bhagavad Gītā became the most popular of all the sacred writings of Hinduism not only for its beautiful conception of a personal god, but also for its ethical teaching. The great lesson of the Gītā was that the knowledge of the Brahman, which had been the goal of the Upanishads, was to be reached not merely by the ascetic who renounced the world but also by the householder living in the world. It was to be attained by action (karma ) no less than by meditation. Every action in accord with dharma, that is with a man's state in life, could become a means of salvation, if it was done with "detachment" and its "fruit" was renounced. Every action could become a true sacrifice, if it was offered to God in a spirit of devotion (bhakti ) and thus became a means of union with God. Thus the Gītā marked a further stage on the path of ascent to the Brahman; the goal was to be attained not merely by sacrifice (yajña ) as in the Vedas, or by knowledge (jñāna ) as in the Upanishads, but by love (bhakti ). It was the conception of love (bhakti ) that was to work so wonderful a transformation in Hindu religion and to lead to its greatest achievements.

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

The metaphysical doctrine of the Bhagavad Gītā was based on the Sākhya, which was one of the schools (darśanas ) of philosophy that arose during the period when the Mahābhārata and the dharmaśāstras were being composed. Darśana means literally "point of view," and the six darśanas were not systems of philosophy so much as different points of view within orthodox Hindu doctrine.

Nyāya. The first school, Nyāya (analysis), was a system of logical realism which, although it was similar to that of Aristotle, was quite independent of it. Nyāya maintained the existence of an external world independent of the mind and sought to establish this view by logical reasoning. It never gained popularity, but the study of logic came to be regarded as a discipline for the study of philosophy and by a characteristically Indian turn of thought as a means of salvation, the end of all philosophy.

VaiśeŚika. The second school, Vaiśeika (individual characteristics), was a system of philosophy based on atomism; it taught that the universe consists of five elementsearth, air, fire, water, and space (ākāśa )each of which is composed of a number of atoms. The influence of these theories was slight, their principal interest being the remarkable fact that they had a place in Hindu thought.

Sākhya. More characteristic and more influential was the Sākhya (the "school of the Count"), the basis of the doctrine of the Bhagavad Gītā, tracing its origin probably to the time of the Upanishads. It was a metaphysical doctrine that the universe was derived from two principles called Purusha and Prakrti. Purusha, which may be translated Spirit, was the principle of Being, corresponding in some ways with Aristotle's "form" or essence. Prakrti was the principle of Becoming, corresponding to Aristotle's "matter" or, more generally, "substance." From these two principles all the elements in human nature and the natural world were derived. What was peculiar to the Sākhya was the doctrine that all activity came not from Purusha but from Prakrti. The universe evolved from Prakrti, while Purusha remained above all action in a state of pure consciousness. In man Purusha became identified with Prakrti through ignorance, although in itself eternal and unchanging. The ultimate state of man as pure spirit was considered to transcend this world altogether.

Yoga. Sākhya formed the basis of the fourth school of philosophy known as yoga. Yoga was a system of practical philosophy, whose purpose was to teach the way to separate Purusha from Prakrti and so to attain liberation (moksa ). In a sense, it may be said that this was the goal of all the different schools, since the ultimate end of all life and thought was to attain liberation, but Yoga was distinguished by concern with practical method. The word "Yoga," akin to the English "yoke," meant a discipline or method of union. The principles of Yoga were known to the writers of the Upanishads and were probably older, but the classical school of Yoga originated in the Yoga sūtras or sayings of Patañjali, around a.d. 500. It was a system of physical and spiritual discipline by which the mind was set free from all bodily and mental states dependent upon matter (Prakrti ) and realized its nature as a pure spirit (Purusha ). One respect in which the Yoga philosophy differed from the Sānkhya was that it recognized the existence of a god (Iśvara) who was conceived as a pure spirit, who was able to assist souls on the path of liberation. Yoga was to have an incalculable influence on all Hindu life and thought and to develop many different schools that continue even to the present day.

Pūrva Mīmāsā, Uttara Mīmāsā. The other two schools of philosophy, called Mīmāsā, were concerned exclusively with the interpretation of the Vedas. The first, called Pūrva Mīmāsā, was based on the Brāhmanās and dealt with the laws of sacrifice and the duties of religion (dharma ). It endeavored by rational argument to establish the validity of the Vedas as an eternal revelation, which was valid in itself and was the supreme authority in matters of religion. The second school, Uttara Mīmāsā, was what became generally known as the Vedānta; for the term Vedānta, "end of the Vedas," applied originally to the Upanishads themselves, was later to be used for philosophical systems based on them. Uttara Mīmāsā was concerned with the interpretation of the Vedas not as a way of action (karma ) but of knowledge (jñāna ), and was based on the Upanishads. The basic text was the Brahma-sūtras of Bādarāyaa, written early in the Christian Era. It consisted of short aphorisms, summarizing the doctrine of the Upanishads on the subject of the Brahman. This together with the Upanishads themselves and the Bhagavad Gītā formed the "triple foundation" of the Vedānta, and the principal works of the doctors of the Vedānta consisted in commentaries on these texts.

RELIGIOUS TEACHERS

In the interpretation of the Upanishads, religious teachers (usually Brahmins) formed systems of thought that represented stages of the development of Hinduism within the orthodox framework of the Vedānta.

Śakara. Śakara (b. Kaladi, Malabar, Kerala, 8th century a.d.) was the great master of the Vedānta. In his time Buddhism, Jainism, and other "unorthodox" systems of philosophy were flourishing, but through him Hindu "orthodoxy" was firmly established as the religion of the greater part of India. Śakara himself was a disciple of Gaudapāda, whose commentary on the Māndūkya Upanishad bears clear traces of Buddhist influence. Thus one of the reasons for the triumph of Hinduism over Buddhism may well have been its ability to incorporate the basic insights of Buddhist philosophy into its own system. Śakara himself regarded the Vedas as a revelation of absolute truth and the sole source of that supreme knowledge, which brings liberation. However, in his interpretation of the Vedas he introduced a distinction between the different kinds of knowledge to be found in them. He regarded the knowledge of ritual action (karma ) found in the Pūrva Mīmāsā to be of no value for liberation, any more than knowledge in the Vedas, which was derived from ordinary human experience. The supreme knowledge (parāvidyā ) to be found in the Vedas was contained rather in certain "great sayings" (mahāvākya ), which revealed the true nature of the Brahman. In comparison with this knowledge, all other knowledge was to be classed as ignorance (avidyā ).

The doctrine which Śakara upheld was called Advaita (nonduality) because it affirmed that the Brahman was one, "without a second." Its nature was pure Being (sat ), pure knowledge (chit ), and pure bliss (ānanda ), and this one absolute Being was identical with the Self, the Ātman. The true knowledge of the Brahman could not be attained by any method of reasoning, but only by a direct intuition (anubhava ), in which the soul knew itself in its identity with the Brahman. It followed that all distinctions of being, as they appeared to the rational mind, based on the evidence of the senses were an illusion (māyā ). They were like the figures of a dream or like the forms conjured up by a magician. It was, to use his famous illustration, as when a rope was mistaken for a snake: the form of the snake was "superimposed" on that of the rope; when the "superimposition" was removed, it was seen that there was nothing but a rope. So it was that all the different forms of being were superimposed on the pure being of the Brahman. True knowledge was simply the knowledge of the Brahman. All the revelation of the Vedas and all the reasoning based upon it had no other purpose than to lead the soul to this supreme knowledge, which was also supreme bliss. Such a state of perfect knowledge and bliss was liberation (moksa ). It was a liberation from the illusion (māyā ) of this world and an experience of real being in pure consciousness.

Thus the doctrine of Śakara, like that of the Upanishads, was based on a mystical experience, but it was distinguished by the rigorous logic by which he refuted every argument that could be used against it; his teaching succeeded in unifying the whole body of Hindu doctrine in the light of this central intuition. Śakara did not deny the validity of reason and sense experience in their own spheres; on the contrary, he firmly upheld against the Buddhists a realistic view of nature. Nor did he ever suggest that the soul (jīva ), which was a relative being, was divine. But he maintained that from the point of view of the absolute, all such knowledge and all such distinctions were illusory. Thus he used reason with a rigorous logic as far as it would go, but he maintained the possibility of a knowledge transcending reason, revealed in the Vedas and apprehended by mystical intuition.

There were many who opposed Śakara's view, even though he had succeeded in giving a coherent form to Hindu doctrine. The debate turned especially on the relation of the personal god, as revealed in the Bhagavad Gītā, to the Brahman. According to Śakara, the idea of a personal god with attributes or qualities (saguna ), though it could be helpful to the believer on the way to truth, was itself a product of ignorance (avidyā ). It belonged to the sphere of māyā and had to be transcended, if the soul was to reach the supreme knowledge of the Brahman without attributes (nirguna ).

Rāmānuja. In this matter Śakara was opposed by Rāmānuja, a Tamil Brahmin (b. near Madras, 11th century a.d.; d. at the famous temple of Sri Rangam near Tricinopoli, 1137). His doctrine was known as Viśiāvaita or "qualified" Advaita to distinguish it from the pure Advaita of Śakara. Rāmānuja was a Vedantin who, like Śakara, claimed to interpret the true meaning of the Vedas and on the authority of the same texts of the Brahma-sūtras and the Bhagavad Gītā. But his doctrine was influenced also by another current of religious thought in which the Supreme Being was worshiped under the name of Viu Nārāyaa or Vāsudeva, later identified with Krishna as Bhagavān or Lord. The followers of Rāmānuja's sect were known as Bhāgavatas, and their doctrine developed in a school known as Pāñcarātra, one of the sources of Rāmānuja's theology. The Bhagavad Gītā itself was an early expression of the doctrine, but it was in the Tamil country (Madras State) in the period between a.d. 500 and 1000 that the great flowering of devotion to a personal god took shape in the hymns of the Ālvārs, the poet-saints of South India.

Inspired by this school, Rāmānuja contended that the Supreme Being, the Brahman, had essentially a personal character and a personal relationship to his worshipers. In opposition to Śakara, he maintained that the way of knowledge (jñāna-mārga ) was inferior to the way of devotion (bhakti-mārga ) and that in the highest state of bliss the individual soul was united with God but never wholly identified with Him. Further, while Śakara had taught that the knowledge of the Brahman depended on the soul itself, which had only to realize its essential identity with the Brahman, Rāmānuja contended that the soul was assisted in its ascent to God by divine grace (prasāda ).

Rāmānuja asserted the personal nature of the Brahman and the real distinction between God and nature (Prakti ) and souls (Ātman ). He maintained that the nature of the Brahman is "qualified." It is not the absolutely simple being that Śakara had conceived, but a being with many different attributes. Rāmānuja supported this view by maintaining that as a substance and its attributes are essentially one yet different, so the Brahman was essentially one but had different attributes. Nature and souls he considered to be "modes" of the divine being, which stood to them in the relation of the soul to the body. Thus nature and souls were essentially divine and had lost the knowledge of their true nature due to ignorance. The work of divine grace was to restore them to the knowledge of their true nature and to unite them with God in the love of total self-surrender (prapatti ). In this state, souls were one with the divine being but did not lose their individual self-consciousness.

Madhva. A third school of Vedānta, known as dvaita (duality), arose in opposition to both Śakara and Rāmānuja. Its founder was Madhva (b. South Canara, Kerala, 12th century a.d.). Against all forms of Advaita he maintained the real diversity of being. "Diverse are all the things of the world and they possess diverse attributes." Above all he conceived of God as Viu-Nārāyaa, a personal being, possessed of an infinite number of qualities, a being absolutely transcendent, the supreme cause of all things and eternally distinct from them. God alone has being in Himself; all other beings are dependent on Him. Whether the world depends on God for its existence does not seem to be clear, for Madhva held that nature or matter (Prakti ) is eternal like God; but in all other respects he maintained that nature and souls depend entirely on God. The beatitude of the soul when it attains liberation consists precisely in realizing its entire dependence on God for its being, its knowledge, and its activity. Further, the liberation of the soul depends on the grace of God, first by His revealing Himself in the Vedas and then by His giving it a teacher (guru ) to instruct it in the knowledge of the Vedas; finally in giving it an interior light. There were several features in the doctrine of Madhva and in the stories told about him, suggesting that he might have been influenced by Christian doctrine. This is not certain, however.

Nibārka. A new doctrine, called dvaitādvaita, which held that the Brahman is both different and not different (bhedābheda ) from the world, was introduced by Nibārka (13th century?). His illustration was that of a clay pot, which is both different and not different from the clay of which it is made; again, that of the waves of the sea, which are both different and not different from the sea. In other words, Brahman and the world are essentially the same, differing only accidentally.

Vallabha. A fifth innovator in the interpretation of the Vedānta, Vallabha (14731531), went further than Nibārka and declared that Brahman and the world are identical and not different in anything. He called his doctrine suddhādvaita or pure nonduality, but he stood at the opposite pole to Śakara. Whereas Śakara, to maintain the absolute "nonduality" of the Brahman, had maintained that the world was émāyā and had no real being, Vallabha held that the world is no less real than the Brahman and is simply a manifestation of the Brahman. The Brahman is being, knowledge, and bliss. In the world he reveals his being but hides his knowledge and bliss. In souls he reveals his being and knowledge and hides his bliss. Only in his own form, identified with that of Krishna, does he reveal his perfect being, knowledge and bliss.

One of the most remarkable elements in the doctrine of Vallabha was his conception of divine grace. With the growth of devotion (bhakti ) to a personal god the idea of divine grace (anugraha ) had steadily developed. The idea had its origin in the Upanishads in a famous text where it is said that "Self" (Ātman ) cannot be attained by the Vedas, or by intelligence or by much learning; by him it is attained whom it chooses" (Katha Up. 1.2.23). Although it was characteristic of Śakara to translate this passage differently, since he rejected the doctrine of grace, it was eagerly accepted by those who worshiped a personal god. By Rāmānuja the worship of God was conceived of rather as the devotion of a servant to his Lord, and divine grace was conceived of as an act of condescension. But with the growth of popular devotion in later times, devotion came to be conceived more and more in terms of love (prema ). The attitude of the devotee was that of total surrender (prapatti ) in love. With this grew the idea that love itself is a gift of God. There were two schools of thought on the subject, the schools of "Monkey-Logic" and "Cat-Logic," which were developed respectively by Vadakalai ("Northern") and Tentakalai ("Southern") Vaisnavism in the Tamil regions of South India. According to the first school, the soul has to cooperate with divine grace, as the young monkey clings to its mother; but according to the other, grace is wholly an act of God as a cat carries its young.

Vallabha described divine grace as pushi, a state in which the soul feels itself to be absolutely helpless and abandons itself entirely to God. God is to be loved for His own sake, and the soul itself and the world for the sake of God. The union with God, which is sought, is one in which the soul participates in the very being and knowledge and bliss of God and loves with God's own love. Yet the soul is held to be essentially divine; it does not receive a new nature from God, but it discovers the reality of its own nature.

POPULAR RELIGION

While this great doctrinal synthesis was being built on the Vedānta, Hindu religion had undergone a profound transformation. The Vedic tradition continued to be preserved by the Brahmins, but popular religion introduced new elements into it. It is to be noticed that all the great doctors of the Vedānta came from South India, and to them is due also the fusion of the Vedic tradition with the popular religion. Popular religion found expression in a new literature, and in the worship of numerous deities.

Legends and manuals. Popular religion was represented in legends, especially those of the Purāas; and in manuals of doctrine and ritual, known as Ā gamas, which were concerned especially with the cult of Viu, Śiva, and Śakti.

Purāas were the most important books of the new literature. These were collections of the myths and stories of the gods of popular devotion, confined not to the upper classes alone, but spread among people of all castes. The most notable of the Purāas were the Viśu and Bhāgavata Purāas, telling the story of the avatāras or incarnations of Viu. An indication of the importance of this story was its inclusion by the later teachers of the Vedānta, such as Madhva, Nibārka, and Vallabha, with the Upanishads, the Brahma-sūtras, and the Bhagavad Gītā as one of the bases of their philosophy.

The Āgamas were manuals not only of doctrine but especially of ritual regulating the worship of the different sects. Although the Brahman was universally recognized as one, eternal, absolute being, whose nature is Being, knowledge, and bliss (saccidānanda ), nevertheless Brahman was thought to be manifested in three forms (trimūrti ), Brahmā (in the masculine as distinguished from the neuter Brahman ), Viu, and Śiva.

Brahmā. Brahmā was the form of the creator, Viu the form of the preserver, and Śiva that of the destroyer of the universe. In practice however, scarcely any worship was given to Brahmā; Viu and Śiva each came to be regarded as the supreme God, who is at once creator, preserver, and destroyer of the world. The followers of Viu were known as Vaisnavaites, and those of Śiva, as Shaivites. Each sect had its own Ā gamas, on which were based its doctrine and worship.

Viu. He was a solar deity of little importance in the Vedas, who came to be identified with Vāsudeva, and also with Nārāyana, a cosmic deity of uncertain origin. As such, he was represented as sleeping in the primeval ocean on the thousand-headed serpent (SesŚa), while Brahmā, the world-creator was born of a lotus coming from his navel. This was an interesting reversal of the role of Brahmā, who was originally conceived as the supreme creator, not subject to Visu.

Visu, by his "descent" in different forms to save the world, had become incarnate. The first six incarnations, in the forms of a fish, a tortoise, a boar, a man-lion, a dwarf, and the hero Paraśurāma, were purely mythological and had little religious importance. But the incarnation of Visu as Rāma and Krishna, the heroes of the Rāmāyan and the Mahābhārata, had a profound influence on Hindu religion.

Rāma. The cult of Rāma was comparatively late in developing. From the early Middle Ages, Rāma was represented in literature as an incarnation of Visu, but it was not until the 11th century that a cult seems to have developed. From this time, Rāma began to be represented not merely as an incarnation of Visu but as himself the supreme god. His cult was carried from South to North India in the 14th century by Ramananda, a disciple of Rāmānuja. It inspired some of the greatest religious poetry of India. One of his disciples was Kabīr (14401518), whose poems were later translated by Rabīndranāth Tagore. There is evidence in his work of Muslim influence on Hinduism, a more exalted conception of the transcendence of God, and a greater universality. But the poet who more than anyone else was responsible for the spread of devotion to Rāma was Tulsī Das (15321623), whose version of the Rāmāyaa, written in Hindi, is regarded as one of the great masterpieces of religious literature. The cult of Rāma was organized in the 17th century by Rāmdās (160881), who established many temples and monasteries (mahs ), besides writing poetry. A contemporary of Rāmdās, Tukārām (160849), contributed some of the most moving poems to this cult. On the whole, the cult of Rāma was remarkable for its moral purity, in which it often compares favorably with that of Krishna.

Krishna. The cult of Krishna, although it began with the Bhagavad Gītā, reached its culmination in the Bhāgavata Purāna (10th century a.d.), one of the most popular works of Hindu piety, placed by later writers on a level with the Vedas. It tells the story of Krishna's infancy, which was full of miraculous incidents and many charming stories that endeared him to the people as the child-god. But of even greater importance was the story of Krishna as a young cowherd (gopā ), who won the love of all the milkmaids (gopīs ). Drawing wives from their husbands, he danced with them to the music of his flute in the moonlight. The story was intended to have a mystical significance and as such it was interpreted by all the great poets and philosophers of the cult. It represented the love of God, which draws men to forsake home and family and to surrender themselves to the joy of loving God. The extreme emotionalism of this cult often led to abuse. In later times Krishna, like Rāma, came to be regarded not so much as an incarnation of Visu, as the very per-u was represented with his consort, the goddess Laksmī, so Krishna was worshiped with his consort Rādhā, the favorite among the gopīs, and the model of total surrender to the love of God. The conception was found in Nibārka and in Vallabha, but it reached its highest expression in the doctrine of Caitanya (14851553), a contemporary of Vallabha from Bengal, where the cult has continued to the present day in the emotional form which he gave to it, accompanied by singing and dancing.

Other Incarnations of Viu. These were ten in number and of a different nature from incarnations as Rāma and Krishna. The first was his incarnation in the form of the Buddha. This was added late in the Middle Ages in the spirit of "comprehension" so typical of Hinduism. It marks the fact that Buddhism had ceased to be a rival of Hinduism in India, and its great founder could now be safely introduced into the Hindu pantheon, but the cult son of God. Just as Vis of the Buddha never attained popularity. The last incarnation is to be that of Kalki, the avatāra of the end of time, when Visu will appear riding on a white horse with a flaming sword in his hand to destroy the wicked and restore the age of gold.

Śiva. The other great god of Hinduism was Śiva, often known as Maheśvara, the "great god." While Visu was a god of the ocean and the sky of wholly beneficent aspect, Śiva was originally a non-Vedic god later identified with Rudra, the Vedic god of mountain and storm. Śiva had his dark side in which he was represented as the "destroyer" of the world, wearing a garland of skulls and haunting the burning grounds of corpses; but he was also an ascetic (mahāyogi ), living in solitude on Mt. Kailasa, holding the world in being by the power of his asceticism (tapas ). He was represented with the "third eye," the sign of supreme wisdom, with matted locks, his body smeared with asheslike his devotees todayand with snakes, of which he was Lord, encircling his neck and arms. But while in one aspect he was the Yogi, wrapped in meditation, in another he was lord of the Dance (nātarāja ), who held the world in being in the cosmic dance and would finally bring it to an end.

This strange and rather fierce deity, with his ambivalent nature and marks of many different origins, captured the imagination of India and was gradually transformed into a god of supreme beauty with dominant characteristics of grace and love. As the dance of Krishna with the gopīs became a symbol of divine love, so the linga of Śiva, a cylindrical pillar with a rounded top, seen in countless temples all over India, became a symbol of the pure godhead "without form" and the creative source of life. In South India in the Tamil country the cult of Śiva developed its most beautiful features. While, in the Middle Ages between the 5th and 10th century, the Alvārs Viu in their poetry, a school of Shaivite poets arose called the Nāyāars; of these the most fawere celebrating Visikka Vāchakar, one of the greatest religious poets of all time. He celebrated Śiva as a god of pure love, who yet punishes the sinner to teach him to mend his ways. Thus the worship of Śiva developed a pure moral character; the god was seen as the Lord of all, full of compassion and mercy, bestowing his grace on the sinner and drawing him by his love.

The cult also developed its own distinctive theology called the Shaiva Siddhānta. Though it recognized the authority of the Vedas, it had its own distinctive scriptures that took the form of Āgamas. Śiva was represented as the supreme God, who was being, knowledge, and bliss, as in the Vedānta. But the Shaiva Siddhānta introduced another principle, the Śakti or power of Śiva, by which he brought the world into being. By this means, the pure transcendence of Śiva as lord (pati ) was preserved, and matter (paśa ) and the soul (pāśu ) were held to be really distinct from him. The soul was liberated from the bonds of matter by the grace of Śiva and in its final state enjoyed not absorption but self-realization in the perfect bliss of Śiva. There were other forms of Śivism, notably Kāshmīra Śivism, said to have been introduced into Kashmir in the 9th century a.d., and Vīra Śivism, introduced by Basava into Kannada (Mysore State) in the 12th century a.d. Basava's followers were called Ligāyats, from their custom of wearing the liga on their person. But neither of these cults had a distinctive doctrine.

The Śakti of Śiva. In the course of time, the Śakti of Śiva, conceived as a feminine principle, became the object of a separate cult originating probably in the worship of the Mother Goddess, according to the evidence furnished by the prehistoric culture of Harappā and Mohenjo-Daro. It was not until the Middle Ages that it appeared in orthodox Hinduism. From the 4th century onward, the mother goddess made an appearance as consort of the great gods. Thus Brahmā was represented with his consort Sarasvatī, the goddess of wisdom; Viu, the goddess of wealth; and Śiva with Pārvatī, daughter of the Himalaya Mountain. The consort of Śiva was also known as Durgā or kĀlĪ, and in this form she received worship in a special cult as Śakti. The peculiarity of the Śakti doctrine was that Śiva, who was pure being and pure consciousness, was regarded as wholly transcendent and inactive; all the activity of the world came from the power of his Śakti. Thus, Śakti was the moving principle of the universe, the source of all life and energy. She was the womb of nature, the Mother of all creation. Ultimately indeed, she was regarded as one with the supreme principle of Being, the source of the life not only of nature but also of the gods.

As Mother Nature, Śakti had two aspects, one fierce and terrible, representing the destructive aspect of nature, the other gentle and loving, the source of joy and liberation. The doctrine and worship of the Śakti cult was based on scriptures known as the Tantras (see tantrism). Through these writings, the tradition of the old fertility cults entered Hinduism. Since some of these rites involved orgiastic practices, the breaking of all taboos, the reputation of the cult suffered as a whole. But essentially the cult was based on the recognition of the divine power inherent in matter and the processes of nature, on the sacramental value of the body and its powers to lead the soul on the path of liberation. Its most characteristic doctrine was that of Kundalinī Yoga. According to this doctrine Śakti, the divine energy, lies coiled up like a serpent at the base of the spine in the form of Kundalinī. The purpose of this Yoga is to lead the Śakti through the different centers of consciousness (chakras ) in the body, from the Śakti unites base of the spine to the top of the head, until Śiva or pure consciousness and attains to the perfect bliss of liberation.

Worship. In addition to the great gods of Hinduism, there were innumerable lesser deities; indeed it is said in the Purāas that there are 333 million deities in the Hindu pantheon. These include local gods and goddesses, spirits and demigods of all kinds. India never lost the primitive sense of the "sacred," of a divine mystery present in the world of nature. Hills and mountains, rivers and streams, plants and animals, have a sacred character and may be worshiped as manifestations of the divine being. Persons of all kinds, parents and teachers, husband and wife, above all the guru, the spiritual teacher, may be worshiped as God, because they are invested with divine authority. This gives a special character to the worship of the gods. It would not be correct to describe it simply as polytheism, in spite of the multitude of gods, since each god or goddess is regarded as but a "form" or manifestation of the one Universal Being. The danger of polytheism, even among the simple people in the villages, is less evident than the sense of the divine as one infinite power extending everywhere.

Temples. From the time of the Middle Ages when the Vedic sacrifice (yajña ) lost its importance, worship (pūjā ) has been offered to the gods in temples. The temple itself is a mark of the later popular religion. Worship is offered by the placing of fruit and flowers before an image of the god set in a shrine (mūlasthānam ) around which the temple is built. The Hindu temple is not a place of congregational worship; it is essentially the shrine of a deity, and offerings are made by the priest (pūjarī ) for individuals or small family groups. The great Hindu temples have a multitude of such shrines, where different gods are worshiped, but the temple centers on the principal shrine. This is usually dark and low, representing the hidden dwelling place of the divine mystery at the heart of the universe, of which the temple is an image.

An image that is worshiped is consecrated by a special ceremony, and after its consecration it is believed that the god is really present in it. It is treated as a living being, awakened from sleep in the morning, washed and dressed and arrayed with garlands of flowers; lamps are waved before it, and it is given food to eat, the "essence" being taken by the god and the material part being given to the worshipers or distributed to the poor. This worship of idols is one of the principal elements in Hindu religion; yet it would be a mistake to regard it simply as idolatry. Generally speaking, such worship is rather the expression of a profound sacramental sense. It is not the idol as such that is worshiped, but the god who is believed to dwell in the idol, and above any particular god, Divine Being itself, which thus manifests itself to its worshipers. The true nature of this worship is expressed in a remarkable text of the 13th century: "God when present in the inanimate idol becomes in all respects subject to his devotee. Though omniscient, he seems to be without knowledge; though alive and conscious he appears to be inanimate; though independent, he appears to be entirely dependent on others; though omnipotent, he seems to be powerless; though perfect, he appears needy; the protector of the universe, helpless he is the Lord, but he hides his Lordship; the invisible makes himself an object for our senses to perceive, the inapprehensible brings himself within our easy reach." Nothing could express more clearly the sacramental character of Hindu popular worship, when it is properly understood.

Although the temple is in a sense the center of religious worship and the temples are crowded with worshipers on the great festivals and visited by pilgrims from all over India, yet the home remains, as in Vedic times, the place where most of the sacred rites are performed. An orthodox Brahmin house has a room set apart for the daily prayers, which are offered at sunrise, and almost every religious home has a small shrine in a corner of a room set apart for prayer. Every stage of life, moreover, is accompanied by sacramental rites (saskāras ) from birth, or rather before birth, to death. There are three rites prescribed during the pregnancy of the mother and three after birth. Not all these are observed in modern times, but a special importance continues to be attached to the ceremony of the thread (upanayana ), by which the Brahmin boy is initiated as a full member of his community and becomes one of the "twice-born." This is accompanied by the recital of the gāyatrī, a verse of the Rig Veda, considered to be supremely sacred and used on many occasions. A Hindu marriage is performed in the home and is invested with a solemn character. According to tradition, marriage is indissoluble and a widow is never permitted to marry again. However, divorce was introduced by the State. Marriages were arranged by the family and normally took place in childhood until recently, when it was forbidden by law.

According to Vedic tradition, the dead are cremated, but burial is common among many of the lower castes. There are elaborate funeral rites, renewed up to 30 days after the death, and offerings of rice are made to the souls of the dead at regular intervals.

HINDUISM AND THE CASTE SYSTEM

Though abolished by law, caste remains in force to a large extent, especially in regard to marriage. It is quite distinct from the four "classes" (vara ) of ancient India, and appears merely to have been grafted on to them, having been derived from the tribal customs.

Crafts and Castes. Caste was determined partly by religious and social customs and partly by craft or trade. It was by means of the caste system that the innumerable tribal and racial groups of ancient India with their different religions and social customs were integrated into Hinduism, while preserving their own traditions. At the same time, the different craftsmen, whose work was the glory of ancient India and was always stamped with a religions character, formed themselves into guilds, which gradually formed distinct castes. In the course of time, the number of castes grew to be more than 2,000, and the restrictions on intercourse between castes grew more and more rigid. At the same time certain tribal groups and certain trades came to be regarded as base and unclean and were held to be "untouchable," so that they could not approach within a certain distance of a person of a higher caste. The caste system has undoubtedly been responsible for many injustices in Hindu life, especially as it was held to be based on karma, so that a man's position in society was determined by the actions of his former life. On the other hand, the caste system enabled each group to retain its own individuality and distinctive traditions, gave each person a clearly defined status in society, and provided a kind of social security for widows and orphans, the aged, and the poor, who would otherwise have had no one to care for them.

Persistence of the caste system. The caste system retains a strong hold over Hindu society, especially in the villages, but it has begun to break down as a result of contact with modern habits of life in the towns. The State abolished "untouchability" by law, and efforts were made to secure equality of status for all classes. A transformation in Hindu society is evident in the suppression of such customs as the immolation of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands (satī ) and temple prostitution. Child marriage is illegal and divorce is permitted. But these are changes in the social structure. Hinduism, far from having lost its hold over the people, has rather undergone a reformation and emerged stronger than before.

REFORM IN HINDUISM

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Hinduism was purified in a variety of ways by the influence of learned or saintly Hindus.

Sen, Sarasvati. The first movement of reform in Hinduism began with the foundation of a school of rational theism on the basis of the Upanishads, the Brāhma Samāj, by Rām Mohan Roy (17721833), a Brahmin from Bengal. It was an attempt to free Hinduism from polytheism and image worship and to construct a pure monotheism in the light of Christian and Muslim doctrine. Though the Brāhma Samāj had some influence for a time and the work was continued by Debendra Nāth Tagore (18171905), the father of the poet, who gave it a more Indian character, it became divided under its next leader, Keshab Chandra Sen (183884), on the question of the relation between the Christian and Hindu elements within it. This led to another movement of reform by Dayānand Sarasvatī (182483), who founded the Ārya Samāj, another attempt to abolish polytheism, image worship, and caste practices. Based on what its founder believed to be the pure religion of the Vedas, it was opposed alike to Christianity and to Islam. It continues to form a militant group within Hinduism, but its influence is not extensive.

Parahasa. The greatest portent in modern Hinduism was Rāmakrishna Parahasa (183486). He was a poor and almost unlettered Brahmin, who spent most of his life as a devotee of the Mother Goddess at the Dakshineswar temple outside Calcutta. He summed up in himself all that was best in Hinduism. A devotee of the Mother Goddess, who practiced all the tantric rites of her cult, he was at the same time a Vedantin, who worshiped God "without form" no less than "with form." He was an ascetic, who realized the ideal of Hindu sannyāsi, and a mystic, who manifested the Hindu ideal of a "holy man" who had "realized" God. His mind was open to other religions, and for some time he deliberately meditated as a Christian and a Muslim in order to enter into the spirit of each religion. Finally he was led to the belief that "all religions are one." His influence was extended by his disciple Vivekānanda (18621902), who founded the Rāmakrishna Mission, introducing a new element of social service into Hinduism and giving it a missionary character that extended its influence to Europe and America.

Gāndhi. While these movements of reform affected only a cultured minority, it was Mahātmā Gāndhi (18691948) more than anyone who was responsible for bringing the reform to the masses of the people. Through him untouchability was abolished and many caste barriers were removed. He introduced the ideal of nonviolence (ahisa ) as the basic principle of social and political life, and by this India was able eventually to obtain her independence. Gāndhi was deeply influenced by the teaching and example of Christ, as well as by the writings of Tolstoi, but he remained a devout Hindu at heart, accepting all Hinduism's basic principles. Through him Hindu religion acquired a new moral character, which affected the whole mass of the people.

Ghose. The doctrine of the Vedānta received further development at the hands of Aurobindo Ghose (18721950), who in 1910 founded an ashram, or hermitage, at Pondicherry, where he lived for 40 years. He had read modern Western philosophy, and in his great work, The Life Divine, he sought to reconcile an evolutionary view of the universe with the traditional doctrine of the Vedānta. According to his theory, both being and becoming are essential aspects of the one Brahman; the world of becoming, of time and evolution, is a manifestation of the eternal Brahman. There is a movement of descent from the divine being into the world, and a corresponding movement of ascent by which the world returns to the divine being, by becoming conscious in man of its identity with the divine nature.

Maharishi. Perhaps the most authentic expression of the doctrine of the Vedānta in modern times is to be found in Ramana Maharishi (18791950) of South India, who left his home at the age of 17 to live in a cave as a sannyāsī on the holy hill of Arunācala at Tiruvaāmalai, near Madras. Without any training in the Vedānta he reached the state of absolute "identity" with the Brahman, which had always been the goal of the Hindu religious quest. He taught the doctrine of pure "nonduality" (Advaita ) as it was held by Śakara, but with him it was not so much a theory as an experience; he showed in his life the example of perfect detachment and at the same time sympathy and understanding, which is the Hindu's mark of the "holy man." Thus in different ways Hinduism showed itself capable of new life, satisfying the religious, moral, and social ideals of the majority of its adherents.

HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY

Hinduism was called by the theologian P. Johanns, SJ, "the most searching quest in the natural order for the Divine that the world has known." In common with Christianity, it has its own idea of Trinity and Incarnation, of sin and salvation, of revelation and inspiration, of sacrifice and sacrament, of law and morality, of the ascetic and mystical ife, of grace and love, and of man's ultimate goal of union with God. It is impossible not to admire the profundity of its conception of God as saccidānanda, being, knowledge, and bliss and the degree of intimacy with God to which it declares that the soul is called.

Lack of a clear concept of creation. According to Johanns, this is its principal weakness. As a result of it, Hinduism has never been able to define a relation between God, the soul, and the world. To preserve the divine simplicity and transcendence, it must say with Śakara that the world is māyā, that is, without ultimate reality; or with Rāmānuja and his school, it must say that the world itself is divine. Nor has it ever been able to clarify the true nature of personality in God. It is true that in the dualist system of Madhva and in the Shaiva Siddhānta, a real distinction between God, the soul, and the world is established, but there is no creation, properly speaking, and matter and souls are conceived as eternal like God.

Soul's union with God. Another limitation is that, the soul being never clearly distinguished from God, union with God is always conceived in terms of identity. Thus grace in Hindu doctrine is not a pure gift of God by which the soul is raised to a participation in the divine being, but a divine assistance by which it is enabled to know its true and eternal being as one with God. Hinduism's rootedness in mythology, moreover, can easily result in an unworthy conception of the divine nature and a practical polytheism. The caste system, also, with its concept of untouchability, child marriage, and polygamy, the cult of images, which may easily lead to idolatry, and such customs as ritual prostitution and the burning of widows (satī ), have in practice often led to degradation. Modern Hinduism, however, has reacted against such abuses. Its profound philosophy has succeeded in effectually purifying the tangle of mythology and in constructing a noble ethical ideal in the face of corrupt practices.

See Also: indian philosophy.

Bibliography: Translations. w. t. de bary et al., comps., Sources of Indian Tradition (Records of Civilization 56; New York 1958). s. radhakrishnan and c. a. moore, A Source Book in Indian Philosophy (Princeton 1957). s. radhakrishnan, ed. and tr., The Principal Upanishads (New York 1953). General. a. l. basham, The Wonder That Was India: A Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent before the Coming of the Muslims (London 1954) ch. 7. t. m. p. mahadevan, Outlines of Hinduism (Bombay 1956). s. radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, 2 v. (2d ed. rev. London 1941); ed., History of Philosophy, Eastern and Western, 2v. (London 195253) v. 1 Indian Thought. s. dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 v. (Cambridge, Eng. 193255). h. losch, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Tübingen 195765) 3:340349. w. crooke and j. hastings, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh 190827) 6:686715. j. finegan, The Archeology of World Religions (Princeton 1952) 123181. c. sharma, A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (London 1960). k. k. klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism, 2d ed (Albany, NY 1994). Catholic. c. regamey, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 195765) 5:368372. g. dandoy, An Essay on the Unreality of the World in the Advaita (Calcutta 1919), tr. l. m. gauthier (Paris 1932), excellent survey by Catholic scholars with bibliog. p. johanns, A Synopsis of "To Christ through the Vedanta" (Light of the East series 4, 7, 9, 19; Ranchi 194244); La Pensée religieuse de l'Inde, tr. l. m. gauthier (Namur 1952). m. quÉguiner, Catholicisme 5 (1960) 146382. p. masson-oursel, "Les Religions de l'Inde," Histoire des religions, eds. m. brillant and r. aigrain (Paris 1953) 2:85163. a. krÄmer, Christus und Christentum im Denken des modernen Hinduismus (Bonn 1958). On the relations between Hinduism and Christianity, see the systematic bibliog. in e. benz and m. nambara, Das Christentum und die nicht-christlichen Hochreligionen (Beihefte der Zeitschrift für Religions-und Geistesgeschichte 5; Leiden 1960) 3346.

[b. griffiths/

k. r. sundararajan]

Hinduism

views updated Jun 11 2018

Hinduism

FOUNDED: before 3000 b.c.e.
RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 14 percent

OVERVIEW

Hinduism is the religion of almost a billion people. While most of them are in India, there are almost two million in the United States and substantial numbers in Great Britain, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and East Africa. Marked by diverse beliefs, practices, and organizational structures as well as multiple chains of authority, Hinduism is one of the largest and oldest religious traditions in the world. The tradition has been transmitted through performing arts, texts, visual art, and architecture. Hindus may think of the supreme being as beyond thought and word; as a supreme power that is immanent in the universe and that also transcends it; as male, female, or simultaneously male and female; as beyond gender; as one, as many; as a local colorful deity; and as abiding in the human soul or even as identical with it. Hinduism can be spoken of both as one umbrella category or as several traditions, and the larger Hindu culture encompasses not just beliefs and texts but also practices that include healing, performing arts, astrology, geomancy, and architecture.

The Hindu tradition does not have a particular year or even century of birth. It is generally believed that the Hindu tradition originated in the civilization that existed in India about five thousand years ago and possibly in the culture of the Indo-European people. Whether these two cultures were the same or distinct is a matter of scholarly debate. While Hinduism has been largely associated with India over the last two millennia, it has spread to many parts of the world through maritime contacts, traders, businessmen, educators, bonded workers, and learned priests.

The names "Hindu" and "India" are derived from "Sindhu," the original name of the river Indus. It was a word that most Hindus did not use for themselves in the past, and in India it had more geographical than religious overtones, at least until the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries c.e. The word "Hinduism" came to be used increasingly by the British in the eighteenth century, when they began to extend their colonial rule over India. There were numerous concepts and practices that connected the many "Hindu" groups and communities, but Western scholarship has questioned whether the concept of "Hinduism" as a unified tradition existed in the precolonial era. Despite their regional, sectarian, and linguistic differences, many Hindus point to concepts of caste, texts, and theologies—as well as practices such as pilgrimage and the celebration of festivals—to support the idea that there were diverse but connected precolonial traditions.

HISTORY

In the traditional recording of events in India (called iti-hasa, or "thus it has been"), the deeds of gods and goddesses are combined with those of heroic kings, thoughtful and resourceful women, celestial beings (devas), and the wicked demon-like characters known as danavas or asuras. The sense of "history" in many of the Hindu texts called Puranas ("Ancient Lore") is a sense of valorous and gracious actions; it involves learning to act with a sense of what is righteous (dharma), compassion, and gratitude. This sense of "thus it has been" is different from narrating a linear sequence of events, which constitutes a customary understanding of "history" in other parts of the world. Recording linear history has also been, however, practiced by many Hindu rulers. It is important to recognize that the well-known markers in the last few millennia are those people, events, and movements that have been privileged by contemporary minds as worthy of being preserved and therefore tell us only some aspects of the history of the Hindu traditions.

Most scholars believe that the earliest civilization in India of which we have records existed from about 3000 to 1750 b.c.e. near the river Indus. While some city centers were in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (both of which are in modern-day Pakistan, the country that borders India to the northwest), the civilization seems to have existed in many parts of the subcontinent. The people of the Harappa civilization were impressive builders and lived in what appears to have been planned urban centers. At Mohenjo-Daro there is a huge structure, resembling a swimming pool, that archaeologists call "the Great Bath." Scholars believe that it was meant for religious rituals. Archaeological evidence also suggests that the people of this culture worshiped a goddess and a god with the characteristics of the later Hindu deity Shiva.

The original homeland of the Indo-European people (who called themselves Arya, or "noble ones") is one of the most debated issues in Indian history. Although many Western scholars maintain that the Indo-Europeans migrated from Central Asia in about 2000 b.c.e., some scholars think that the migration began in about 6000 b.c.e.—and from other regions (possibly the areas near Turkey). The work of these scholars suggests that it was a peaceful migration, possibly undertaken because of the farming interests of the population. Others say that the original homeland of these people was the Indian peninsula and that the civilization was continuous with the Harappan civilization. The dates for the Indo-European occupation of this area could thus be several centuries—if not millennia—earlier than 1500 b.c.e.

The Indo-Europeans spoke a language that developed into the ancient language of Sanskrit. They composed many poems, and eventually manuals, on rituals and philosophy. For a long time none of these were written down. The traditions were committed to memory and passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Mnemonic devices were used to ensure accurate pronunciation, rhythm, and utterance. Many Hindus think of their earliest history as being recorded in these Indo-European compositions, called Veda, or "knowledge."

In the hymns that were composed by about 1000 b.c.e. there is speculation on the origins of the universe and a description of the sacrifice of a primeval man through which creation began. One of the hymns explicitly mentions the beginnings of the social divisions that are today called "caste."

OM.

The "Om" (Aum) symbol is the written form of the sacred "Om" sound. It is the most holy of all the Hindu mantras. The symbol also represents the trinity of God in Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer).

The sacrificial worldview of the early Vedic age gave way to philosophical inquiry and discussion in the Aranyakas and the Upanishads, composed during the seventh and sixth centuries b.c.e. The sophisticated philosophy of the Upanishads was coeval with the spirit of critical enquiry in many parts of northern India. Religious leaders—notably, Gautama Siddhartha (eventually called the Buddha, or the Enlightened One) and Mahavira the Jina (the Victorious One)—challenged the notion that the Vedas were revealed and authoritative. They relied on their own spiritual experiences to proclaim a path to liberation that was open to all sections of society. The followers of Mahavira are today called Jains. Early religious texts such as the Upanishads focus on the goal of liberation from the cycle of life and death, but most later Hindu literature in Sanskrit (after about 400 b.c.e.) deals directly or indirectly with dharma or righteous behavior.

Although Buddhism and Jainism were patronized by many monarchs, by the fourth century c.e. the Gupta dynasty in northern India had facilitated the growth of Hinduism by encouraging the building of Hindu temples and the composition of literary works. Temple construction was taken up enthusiastically by kings and queens as well as citizens in many parts of India after the sixth century.

Bhakti, the expression of devotional fervor, is perhaps most evident after the seventh century c.e. Men and women from different castes poured out their devotion to the gods and goddesses in vernacular languages. Several features contributed to the spread of bhakti. One was the use of vernacular languages; the composition after the sixth century c.e. of devotional hymns in the classical (but spoken) language Tamil was an important development in Hinduism. The songs became popular, appealing both to intellectual commentators and philosophers and to the larger population. Another factor was bhakti's appeal across all social classes. A canon was anthologized, with poems drawn from various castes and classes. Many of the most renowned devotional poetsaints were perceived as being from low castes. The building of temples also promoted devotion; from at least the fourth or fifth centuries Hindu temples have been built in both India and Southeast Asia. Temples in India became centers for devotion, rituals, poetry, music, dance, scholarship, and economic distribution as well as emblems of power and prestige for patrons. Many temples were centers for art and, according to many scholars, also for astronomy. Kings and queens in the Gupta dynasty (fourth–sixth centuries c.e.) in northern India and the Western Chalukya dynasty in central India (c. sixth century c.e.) subsidized temples for the Hindu deities Shiva and Vishnu and the various goddesses.

Treatises on healing, surgery, astrology, and architecture that were composed (by authors such as the physician Caraka) in the early centuries of the Common Era are all framed in religious discourses. These subjects are presented as conversations between Hindu gods and goddesses and holy men. In some cases the texts say that the practice of these arts and sciences will lead to liberation. There were several forms of healing, including systems such as Ayurveda ("knowledge of a long life") and Siddha. Ritual prayers, pilgrimage, and exorcism were also used for healing. Descriptions of various hospitals and civic healing centers in India date back to the fifth century.

Hinduism spread to Southeast Asia during the first millennium of the Common Era. It was probably taken there by traders and merchants. By the fourth century there were kings with Indian names in the kingdom of Funan in Cambodia. The "Indianization" of Southeast Asia is a significant event in world history. It is a matter of scholarly debate whether Hindus migrated to Southeast Asia or whether scholars and ritual specialists from Southeast Asia had their training in India and selectively adapted practices to their regions. The cultural and religious worldviews of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions were selectively adapted by local populations, leading to the construction of some of the greatest temples and monuments in the world. By the early ninth century Jayavarman II was crowned in Cambodia in accordance with rituals specified by Hindu texts. Men and women in Southeast Asia donated manuscripts, endowed temples, and patronized religious rituals. In Cambodia, Indonesia, and other places large temple complexes were built following precise ritual regulations. Hindu temples flourished in Java and Bali. Buddhism became the prevalent religion after the thirteenth century in Cambodia and after the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Java and Bali. Hinduism continued to exist in Bali, but with the eventual dominance of Buddhism and Islam, it died out in many other Southeast Asian countries.

A number of renowned Hindu theologians lived between the seventh and fifteenth centuries c.e. Many of them, including Shankara (c. eighth century), Ramanuja (c. 1017–1137), and Madhva (c. thirteenth century), interpreted Sanskrit texts that were considered to be canonical.

Sailors and merchants from the Middle East took Islam to southern India probably in the seventh century c.e. The encounter between Hindus and Muslims in this region seems to have been relatively peaceful. Almost two centuries later Muslim conquerors went to northern India, and by the twelfth century the first Muslim dynasty had been established in Delhi. In the following centuries another Muslim dynasty, the Mughal empire, came to power. The relationships between the traditions differed in various parts of India.

After the fifteenth century the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French made their way to India and established settlements there. In time the foreign powers became involved in local politics, and possession of territory became part of their agendas. The disintegration of the Mughal empire in the eighteenth century led to the formation of many small kingdoms that invited the military help of European traders. By the late eighteenth century the domination of the East India Company and the British had led to a loose unification of large parts of the Indian subcontinent under British control. While most Hindu and Muslim forms of rule had generally accepted local autonomy, the British, who were Christians, felt a moral and political obligation to govern the entire country. Many foreign missionaries scrutinized the Hindus' social and religious practices. Their criticisms were particularly severe regarding "idolatry," the caste system, and some of the practices applied to women.

In the early nineteenth century the Hindu theologian Ram Mohan Roy, discussed below under EARLY AND MODERN LEADERS, founded a reform movement that came to be called the Brahmo Samaj (society of Brahma). Later in the century Dayananda Sarasvati, also discussed below under EARLY AND MODERN LEADERS, started the Arya Samaj reform movement. Other significant religious leaders in the nineteenth century included Ramakrishna (1836–86) and his disciple Vivekananda (1863–1902). During the nineteenth century sanatana dharma (eternal dharma)—a term that had been used in the texts on dharma and in the epics to denote virtues that are normative for all human beings—became popular for denoting Hinduism in general. Some nineteenth-century Hindus, who saw the religion as one rather than many disparate traditions, began to use this term for their faith tradition.

The spread of Hinduism throughout the world has been one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After the abolition of slavery, colonial powers from the Western world (principally England) took Indians as workers—sometimes as indentured servants—to many parts of the world, including eastern and southern Africa, Fiji, and the Caribbean. Hindu practices in these lands depended on the origin, caste, and class of the Hindu workers who went there. As soon as they were financially and physically able to do so, these Hindus built temples.

Other forms of Hinduism or practices derived from Hindu teachings are also seen in the diaspora. Some practices, such as ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a group that is more popularly known as the Hare Krishnas), require a fair amount of "Indianization"—such as adopting Indian names and clothing. Other practices, such as Transcendental Meditation and certain forms of yoga, have been separated from their cultural and religious contexts in India and are presented as physical and mental exercises that any-one, regardless of religious affiliation, can practice.

The many traditions that make the tapestry of Hinduism continue to flourish in the diaspora. Just as the Hindus who migrated to Southeast Asia in the first millennium c.e. sought to transmit their culture through the building of the great temples of Cambodia and Java, Hindu immigrants to England and the United States seek to perpetuate their culture into the next millennium through establishing temples, which serve as the religious and cultural nucleus of a Hindu community.

CENTRAL DOCTRINES

There are many Hindu schools of thought and practice and many Hindu communities. Only a few ideas and concepts are common to most Hindus. There is no creed or pillar of faith and no doctrine that all Hindus must believe in to be considered Hindus. Nevertheless, many schools of philosophy have held that acceptance of the sacred compositions called the Vedas as a source of divine authority is a litmus test of orthodoxy. Hindu doctrines are expressed and transmitted by epic narratives, which are frequently performed as music, dance, recitation, and drama. The sophisticated and extensive written traditions in Sanskrit and other languages have been the province of a small percentage of educated scholars.

In the Hindu tradition there are numerous gods and goddesses and many books and stories about them. According to one account, a conversation in the Upanishads (Hindu sacred texts composed in about the seventh century b.c.e.), there are three hundred million gods and goddesses. In the course of this conversation the question "How many are there?" is reiterated several times until the final answer is given: just one. Thus, it is correct to say that Hindus worship many gods and one god. Ultimately, the supreme being is infinite and beyond words—the same being can therefore be said to be both one and many. To deny the manifoldness or the unity of the supreme being would be to deny its infinity.

Hindus may say that they worship one God, even as they recite prayers and sing in devotion to the many deities of the Hindu pantheon. Some Hindus claim that, although there are many deities, only one is supreme. Others say that all gods and goddesses are equal but that one is their favorite or that their family worships a particular deity. Some believe that there is only one god, and all other deities are manifestations of that being. Many Hindus contend that numbers are like gender—they are human ideas foisted upon the divine.

Glossary

acharya
a formal head of a monastery, sect, or sub-community
ashrama
one of the four stages of life
atman
the human soul
Ayurveda
"knowledge of a long life"; a Hindu healing system
Bhagavad Gita
one of the most sacred texts of the Hindus; a book of 18 chapters from the epic the Mahabharata
bhakti
devotion; the practice of devotion to God
Brahma
a minor deity; the creator god
Brahman
the term used in the Upanishads to refer to the supreme being
Brahman
the upper, or priestly, caste
caste
a social group (frequently one that a person is born into) in Hindu society
deva
a divine being
Devi
in the Sanskrit literary tradition, the name for the Goddess
dharma
duty, or acting with a sense of what is righteous; sometimes used to mean "religion" and "ethics"
Dharma Sastra
any of a set of treatises on the nature of righteousness, moral duty, and law
Durga
a manifestation of the Goddess (represented as a warrior)
Ganesha
a popular Hindu god; a son of the goddess Parvati, he is depicted with an elephant head
Goddess
a powerful, usually gracious, deity in female form sometimes seen as a manifestation of Parvati, the wife of Shiva; she is called any number of names, including Shakti, Durga, Kali, or Devi
gotra
a clan group
guru
a charismatic teacher
jati
birth group
karma
literally "action"; the system of rewards and punishments attached to various actions
Krishna
a manifestation of the supreme being; one of the most popular Hindu deities, he is considered by many Hindus to be an incarnation of the god Vishnu
kundalini
the power that is said to lie dormant at the base of a person's spine and that can be awakened in the search for enlightenment
Lakshmi
a goddess; wife of the god Vishnu
Mahabharata
"Great Epic of India" or the "Great Sons of Bharata"; one of the two Hindu epics
mandala
a geometric design that represents sacredness, divine beings, or sacred knowledge or experience in an abstract form
mantra
a phrase or string of words, with or without meaning, recited repeatedly during meditation
moksha
liberation from the cycle of birth and death
Parvati
a goddess; the wife of the god Shiva
puja
religious rituals performed in the home
Purana
"Ancient Lore"; any of a set of sacred texts known as the old narratives Ramayana "Story of Rama"; one of the two Hindu epics
samadhi
the final state of absorption into, and union with, the divine
samsara
continuing rebirths; the cycle of life and death
sanatana dharma
"eternal dharma"; in the Dharma Sastras, virtues common to all human beings; also, a word used to denote Hinduism in general after the nineteenth century
shakti
energy or power, frequently used for the power of the Goddess; also a name for a manifestation of the Goddess
Sanskrit
a classical language and part of the Indo-European language family; the language of ancient India
Shiva
"the auspicious one"; a term for the supreme being; one of the most important deities in the Hindu tradition
smriti
"remembered"; a set of sacred compositions that includes the two epics, the Puranas, and the Dharma Sastras
sruti
"that which is heard"; a set of sacred compositions more popularly known as the Vedas
swami
"master"; a charismatic teacher
Tamil
a classical language of southern India that is still spoken
Tantra
literally "loom" or "to stretch"; generic name given to varied philosophies and rituals that frequently involve mantras, meditation on mandalas, or forms of yoga, leading to a liberating knowledge and experience
upadesa
the sacred teaching
Upanishad
any of the Hindu sacred texts composed in about the sixth century b.c.e; generally considered to be the "last" and philosophically the most important part of the Vedas
Vaishnava
a member of a group of people devoted to Vishnu; also used to describe an object or an institution devoted to Vishnu
varna
literally "color"; the social class into which a person is born
varna-ashrama dharma
the behavior recommended for each class and each stage of life
Veda
literally "knowledge"; any of a set of compositions dating from the second millennium b.c.e. that is the highest scriptural authority for many educated Hindus
Vedanta
a philosophical school within Hinduism
Vishnu
literally "all-pervasive"; a term for the supreme being; one of the most important deities in the Hindu tradition; his incarnations include Rama and Krishna
yoga
physical and mental discipline by which one "yokes" one's spirit to a god; more generally, any path that leads to final emancipation
yuga
in Hindu cosmology, any of four ages into which each cycle of time is divided

The Upanishads call the supreme being Brahman. Brahman is considered to be ineffable and beyond all human comprehension. Other texts, such as the Puranas, say that this supreme being assumes a form and a name to make itself accessible to human beings. Viewed from these perspectives, Hindus speak of the supreme being as being both nirguna ("without attributes," specifically "without inauspicious attributes") and saguna ("with attributes" such as grace and mercy). Some texts identify this supreme being as the god Vishnu ("all-pervasive"); others call it Shiva ("the auspicious one"). Still others believe that the supreme being assumes the form of the Goddess and is called Shakti (Sanskrit for "energy"), Durga, Kali, or any one of a thousand names. Although Vishnu, Shiva, and the Goddess are the most important gods in the texts, others—such as Ganesha (a son of Parvati); Kartikkeya, or Murugan (a son of Shiva); and Hanuman (a devotee of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu)—are popular among Hindus. Ganesha is depicted as riding a mouse. Hindus worship him before beginning any new task or before embarking on any journey or project.

Devotees of any deity may perceive him or her to be the supreme being. In some early accounts there was an idea of a trinity sharing various functions; Brahma was the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. This idea, however, was never really popular except in art and sculpture, and in time Brahma (a minor creator god who worked under the orders of a powerful being) became marginal. The functions of creation, preservation, and destruction were combined.

Shiva is one of the most important deities within the Hindu tradition. The manifold aspects of Shiva's power are expressed by his simultaneous and often paradoxical roles: threatening but benevolent, creator but destroyer, exuberant dancer but austere yogi (practitioner of yoga). He is depicted as an ascetic and as the husband of the goddess Parvati. Stories of his saving powers describe him granting wisdom and grace to his devotees.

Many Hindus also deify natural phenomena such as rivers. Hindus revere planets and propitiate the navagraha (nine planets) with rituals. The "nine planets" include the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and two mythical entities called Rahu and Ketu, identified with the ascending and descending nodes of the Moon. In addition to the pan-Hindu deities there are many local gods and goddesses who may have distinctive histories and functions. Because some of the deities have specific functions, a person may worship a particular deity for career success, a particular goddess for a cure from illness, and so on.

Hindus pride themselves on being part of a tradition that has continuously venerated the divine in female form for more than two thousand years. The Goddess, sometimes called Devi in Sanskrit literary tradition, has usually been seen as a manifestation of Parvati, the wife of Shiva. In her beneficent aspect she is frequently called Amba or Ambika (little mother). As a warrior goddess she is Durga, represented in iconography with a smiling countenance but a handful of weapons (which shows that she is ready to help her devotees). Durga is one of the most popular goddesses in India. As Kali, the Goddess is a dark, disheveled figure with a garland of skulls. Even in this manifestation she is called "mother" by her devotees. There are local goddesses in every part of India. In some regions a goddess may be known only by the provincial name and celebrated with local stories.

Many texts speak of the relationship between the human soul (atman) and the supreme being (Brahman), but invariably they suggest rather than declare the connection between the two. For instance, in a conversation in the Chandogya Upanishad, a father asks his son to dissolve salt in water and says that Brahman and atman are united in a similar manner. The father ends his teaching with the well-known dictum "tat tvam asi" (you are that). In this statement, the "that" refers to Brahman and the "you" to atman. Philosophers who later interpreted this passage understood it in different ways. The philosopher Shankara (c. eighth century c.e.) wrote that "you are that" means that Brahman and atman are the same identity. On the other hand, Ramanuja (eleventh century) interpreted it to mean that, while Brahman and atman are inseparably united, they are not identical. Shankara's philosophy came to be called nondualist—that is, there is no ultimate distinction between Brahman and atman. Ramanuja's philosophy, which nuances this identity, is called "qualified nondualism" by later devotees. Other philosophers declared that the human soul and the supreme being are different. The philosophy of Madhva (thirteenth century) is known as "dualism" because he speaks about the real and eternal difference between the human soul and the supreme being.

According to Hindu thought, there is a quest for a higher, experiential knowledge, the knowledge of Brahman. The Upanishads distinguish "lower" knowledge, or that which can be conceptualized and articulated, from the "higher" knowledge of true wisdom. This higher wisdom comes from experientially knowing the relationship between the human soul (atman) and the supreme being (Brahman). Brahman pervades and yet transcends the universe as well as human thought. Ultimately, Brahman cannot be described. According to many Upanishads, to know Brahman completely is to reach the ultimate goal of human beings: to enter a new state of consciousness. This state is said to be ineffable; with our lower conceptual knowledge, we cannot put into words what is ultimately beyond words.

The notions of karma and reincarnation are common to the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Karma literally means "action," especially ritual action, but it has come to mean the system of rewards and punishments attached to various actions. Thus, it refers to a system of cause and effect that may span several life-times. The law of karma dictates that human beings are rewarded or punished according to their behavior. Actions produce merit or demerit, and this will affect the quality of one's future life, either in this lifetime or several lifetimes later. Good deeds and bad deeds do not balance each other out; one has to experience the results of good actions and bad actions.

The idea of karma is closely connected with the concept of the immortality of the soul. Although in the early Vedas there was only a nebulous notion of the afterlife, by the time of the Upanishads the human soul was said to live beyond death. Thus, the theory of karma also implies continuing rebirths (samsara). Liberation from them (moksha), according to the Upanishads, comes from a supreme, experiential, transforming wisdom. When one gets this transforming knowledge, one is never reborn and never dies; one is immortal. Ultimately, therefore, even good karma is to be avoided, for it ties one to the cycle of reincarnation.

In general, the texts do not discuss the details of what happens immediately after death or what happens to a soul between lifetimes. Only the truly evolved souls are said to remember all their past lives. Some theistic texts speak about the soul's journey after death. If the soul is emancipated, it is said to cross a river called Viraja ("without passion") and enter a heaven-like place called Vaikuntha or Kailasa. Vaikuntha is Vishnu's abode, and Shiva lives in Kailasa. Philosophical texts of the Hindu tradition give various accounts of what happens to the soul when it is liberated from the cycle of life and death. The many Hindu texts describe different relationships between the human soul and the supreme being. Theistic philosophies (which assert the ultimate reality of a personal deity) speak about a devotional relationship being joyously experienced in the afterlife. Some theistic schools think of the ultimate liberation as a state of passionate separation between the human soul and God. God is thought of as Krishna in this tradition, and the soul is cast in the role of one of Krishna's cowherd girlfriends, who felt the intensity of their love for him only when separated from him.

While many texts speak about the miserable nature of this life and urge people to seek the everlasting "real" life of liberation, others say that glorifying God on Earth is like experiencing heaven in this lifetime. Sacred pilgrimage centers are considered to be a break in the earthly rhythm and to reflect divine revelation. In this devotional context, some Hindus consider life on Earth to be a joyful experience comparable to the status of liberation.

Although reincarnation and liberation are the most frequently discussed aspects of the afterlife, some of the Puranas talk of many kinds of heavens and hells. In some texts, seven states of netherworlds and seven heavens are described in detail. Different kinds of karma may entail rebirth in these states of heavens or hells. The difference between the hells in Hindu texts and the Judeo-Christian notion of hell is that, within the Hindu tradition, a soul's stay in hells are temporary. Hindu texts recognize a heaven that could be permanent (Vaikuntha) as well as those that are like a temporary paradise (svarga). Descriptions of temporary paradises include dancing girls and wish-fulfilling trees—standard, generic imagery of an androcentric (male-centered) place of delight. A soul is reborn in these paradises if it has certain kinds of karma; once this karma is exhausted, the soul moves on into a different kind of life form.

For more than 2,500 years the religious traditions of India have portrayed the human being as caught in a cycle of life and death. The way out of this misery is to seek and obtain liberation from the cycle. There are several paths to liberation. These can be divided into two general perspectives. The first perspective is characteristic of the Hindu traditions that believe that the human soul (atman) is identical to the supreme being (Brahman) and that liberation is the final, experiential knowledge that one is, in fact, divine. The teacher Shankara (c. eighth century c.e.) described this worldview best. His followers (and those who belong to some other schools) ultimately emphasize human effort and striving, which will result in the transforming wisdom. The second perspective on paths to liberation comes from the theistic schools that speak of an ultimate distinction between the human being and God. Proponents of this worldview advocate devotion to the supreme being and reliance on God's grace.

The Bhagavad Gita ("Sacred Song") discusses the ways to liberation. Some Hindus say that the text portrays multiple paths to the divine, and others say that all paths are aspects of one discipline. In the course of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna, talking to the warrior Arjuna, describes three ways to liberation: the way of action (karma yoga), the way of knowledge (jñana yoga), and the way of devotion (bhakti yoga).

The way of action (karma yoga) entails the path of unselfish action; a person must do his or her duty (dharma), but it should not be done either for fear of punishment or for hope of reward. By discarding the fruits of one's action, one attains abiding peace. The second is the way of knowledge (jñana yoga). Through attaining scriptural knowledge, a person may achieve a transforming wisdom that destroys his or her past karma. True knowledge is an insight into the real nature of the universe, divine power, and the human soul. This wisdom may be acquired through learning texts from a suitable and learned teacher (guru), meditation, and physical and mental control in the form of the discipline called yoga. Later philosophers say that when a person hears scripture, asks questions, clarifies doubts, and eventually meditates on this knowledge, he or she achieves liberation. The third way, the way of devotion (bhakti yoga), is the most emphasized throughout the Bhagavad Gita. Ultimately, Krishna makes his promise to Arjuna: If a person surrenders to the Lord, he will forgive the human being all sins.

Bhakti yoga is perhaps the most popular path among Hindus. Many consider the only way to get salvation to be devotion to a god or goddess, surrendering oneself to that deity, and leaving oneself open to divine grace. Others believe that karma yoga, the way of "detached action," is the best way to get rid of karma and acquire liberation from the cycle of life and death. This is acting for the good of humanity and not with selfish motives. It is believed that by doing all action in a compassionate manner, one can get supreme liberation. Jñana yoga, the path of striving with wisdom and yoga, is considered laudable but are not practiced much by the average Hindu.

Yoga entails physical and mental discipline by which a person "yokes" his or her spirit to a god. It has been held in high regard in many Hindu texts and has had many meanings in the history of the Hindu tradition. Its origins are obscure, but it is generally thought to have come from non-Aryan sources. Many Hindus associate yoga with Patañjali (c. third century b.c.e.) and consider his text, the Yoga Sutras (composed of short, fragmentary, and aphoristic sentences), significant. Yoga was probably an important feature of religious life in India several centuries before the text was written. Patañjali's yoga requires moral, mental, and physical discipline; it involves meditation on a physical or mental object as the single point of focus. Proper bodily posture is one of the unique characteristics in the discipline of yoga. Detaching the mind from the domination of external sensory stimuli is also important.

Perfection in concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana) lead one to samadhi, the final state of absorption into, and union with, the divine. Samadhi has many stages, the ultimate of which is a complete emancipation from the cycle of life and death. The state is spoken of variously as a coming together, uniting, and transcending of polarities; the state is empty and full, it is neither life nor death, and it is both. In short, this final liberation cannot be adequately described in human language.

While many scholars consider Patañjali's yoga to be the classical form of yoga, there are dozens of other varieties. At the broadest level the word has been used to designate any form of meditation or practice with ascetic tendencies. More generally, it is used to refer to any path that leads to final emancipation. Since the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a distinction between two avenues of discipline—Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga—has been drawn. Raja Yoga deals with mental discipline; occasionally, this term is used interchangeably with Patañjali's yoga. Hatha Yoga largely focuses on bodily posture and control over the body. This form of yoga is what has become popular in Western countries.

A philosophical and ritual practice called Tantra (which etymologically means "loom") began to gain importance in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions in about the fifth century. The Tantric tradition influenced many sectarian Hindu movements; Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Shakta (pertaining to Shakti, or the Goddess) temple liturgies, still practiced, are in large measure derived from tantric usage. Much of Tantra has fused with devotional practices and is no longer known officially as "tantra."

In some forms of the Tantric tradition we find an emphasis on a form of yoga known as kundalini yoga. The term kundalini refers to the shakti (power of the Goddess) that is said to lie coiled at the base of one's spine. When awakened, this power rises through a passage and six chakras, or "wheels," to reach the final wheel, or center, located under the skull. This final chakra is known as a thousand-petaled lotus. The ultimate aim of this form of yoga is to awaken the power of the kundalini and make it unite with Purusa, the male supreme being, who is in the thousand-petaled lotus. With this union the practitioner is granted several visions and given psychic powers. The union leads eventually to final emancipation.

Whereas concepts of the deity, reincarnation, and the immortality of the soul are central to the texts, in practice many Hindus focus on notions of purity and pollution, auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. Ritual purity is not directly linked to moral purity. Certain actions, events, substances, and even classes of people can be ritually defiling. Thus, urinating, menstruating, the shedding of blood (even during childbirth), death, and some castes traditionally perceived to be "low" can be polluting. Physical cleansing or the lapse of certain time periods restores the ritual purity to a person or a family. While many of these practices are no longer followed, many held sway until the mid-twentieth century. A few practices, such as menstruation taboos, continue to be followed in some sectors of society, including by some people in urban situations and in the diaspora.

Concepts of what is auspicious and what is not are significant in understanding Hindu life. Certain times of the day, week, month, and year are propitious. In general, what is life-affirming and what increases the quality of life is considered to be auspicious. The right hand is associated with auspicious activities, such as giftgiving, eating, and wedding rituals. The left hand is associated with the inauspicious: insults, bodily hygiene, and funeral (including ancestral) rituals.

Doctrinally and theistically, the Hindu tradition is pluralistic. Each one of the many traditions (sampradayas) of Hinduism has specific doctrines and a precise theology. These theologies have been articulated with faith and in great detail, and the several commentaries hammer out the nuances of every word. Thus, if we look at individual traditions, we find that they are doctrine-specific; if we take Hinduism as a whole, we find a spectrum of ideas and concepts.

MORAL CODE OF CONDUCT

Hindus today use the word "dharma" to refer to religion, ethics, and moral behavior in general and to their religion in particular. Since the nineteenth century the term sanatana dharma (the eternal or perennial dharma) has been used to designate the Hindu tradition. Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus use the term "dharma" to indicate a fairly wide variety of concepts and issues. In the last two centuries the texts on dharma (composed in the beginning of the Common Era) also formed the basis for formulating the administration of law in India. The "moral code" for most Hindus is a combination of traditional customs and practices that are ordinarily even more important than the code of behavior advocated in the texts on dharma. Hindus have been concerned with ritual purity and impurity and auspiciousness and inauspiciousness as areas of importance in correct behavior. In philosophy and in ordering their lives the two categories that have had overriding importance are dharma and moksha (liberation).

The meaning of dharma depends upon the context; further, there have been changes in the emphases over the centuries. Dharma may mean religion, the customary observances of a caste or sect, law usage, practice, religious or moral merit, virtue, righteousness, duty, justice, piety, morality, or sacrifice, among other things. The word "dharma" appears several times in the early Vedic texts. In many later contexts it means "religious ordinances and rites," and in others it refers to "fixed principles or rules of conduct." In conjunction with other words, "dharma" also means "merit acquired by the performance of religious rites" and "the whole body of religious duties." The prominent meaning of dharma eventually came to refer to the duties and obligations of a human being (primarily a male) in connection with his caste and particular stage of life. Texts on dharma both described and prescribed these duties and responsibilities and divided the subject matter into various categories.

For many educated Hindus dharma deals with behavior, justice, repentance, and atonement rites. Dharma also includes the duties of each class or caste of society; sacraments from conception to death; the duties of the different stages of life; the days when one should not study the Vedas; marriage; the duties of women; the relationship between husband and wife; ritual purity and impurity; rites of death and rituals for ancestors; gifts and donations; crime and punishment; contracts; inheritance; activities done only at times of crises; and rules concerning mixed castes. It is obvious that the areas and concerns of what is deemed to be righteous behavior in the Hindu tradition differ from the Western notions of ethics.

The earliest texts on dharma are the Dharma Sutras. These are part of the Kalpa Sutras, which are considered to be ancillaries to the Vedas. By the first centuries of the Common Era many treatises on the nature of righteousness, moral duty, and law were written. These are called the Dharma Sastras and form the basis for later Hindu laws. The best known of these is the Manava Dharmasastra, or the "Laws of Manu." These were probably codified in about the first century and reflect the social norms of the time.

Far better known than these treatises on dharma are the narrative literature of the epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) and the Puranas ("Ancient Lore"). Hindus in India and the diaspora understand stories from these texts as exemplifying values of dharma and situations of dharmic dilemmas. The people in these epics are paradigms to be imitated or avoided.

Dharma is not homogenous, and there are many varieties that are discussed and practiced. There are some virtues and behavior patterns that are recommended for all human beings; others are incumbent on the person's caste, stage of life, and gender. Many Hindus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries emphasized what has been called the common (samanya or sadharana) dharma for all human beings; some speak of this as the "universal" dharma. The epics also call this the sanatana dharma (eternal dharma).

Gautama Siddhartha's Dharma Sutra, one of the earliest texts on dharma, extols the ultimate importance of eight virtues: compassion toward all creatures; patience; lack of envy; purification; tranquility; having an auspicious disposition; generosity; and lack of greed. A person with these qualities may not have performed all sacraments but will still achieve the ultimate goal of being with Brahman, the supreme being. While these virtues and recommendations for behavior are considered to be common to all human beings, the texts on dharma really emphasize the specific behavior enjoined for people of the four major castes and for male members who are in various stages of life. There are also considerable discussions on women's duties (stri dharma). The longest discussions focus on marriages, death rituals, food laws, and caste regulations.

While there are common virtues that all human beings should have, the texts on dharma speak of contextspecific dharma that is incumbent on the different classes (varna) of society. The texts say that male members of the upper three classes—the "priestly" Brahmans, the rulers, and the merchants—should ideally go through four stages (ashrama) of life. The behavior recommended for each class and each stage of life is called varna-ashrama dharma. The responsibility to behave thus is called sva (self) dharma. Whenever books describe the decline of the social order in the world, they refer to the abandoning of the duties that are incumbent upon a person by virtue of his or her station in life.

The "Laws of Manu" and the Bhagavad Gita say that it is better for a person to do his or her own dharma imperfectly than to do another's well. The law books, however, acknowledge that in times of adversity a person may do other tasks. In many parts of India custom and tradition override the dharma texts. While the moral codes of Manu were much exalted by colonial rulers, scholars have shown that they had limited import—that in fact the law was mitigated by learned people, and each case was decided with reference to the immediate circumstances.

The texts of law recognized four stages of life, called the ashramas, for males of the upper three classes of society. First, a young boy was initiated into the stage of a student; his dharma was to not work for a living and to remain celibate. After being a student, a young man was to marry, repay his debt to society and his forefathers, and repay his spiritual debt to the gods. A householder's dharma was to be employed and to lead a conjugal life with his partner in dharma (sahadharmachaarini).

The "Laws of Manu" give details of two more stages: those of a forest dweller and an ascetic. Manu says that when a man sees his skin wrinkled and his hair gray or when he sees his grandchildren, he may retire to the forest with his wife and spend the time in quietude and in reciting the Vedas. The final stage, sannyasa, was entered by few: A man apparently staged his own social death and became an ascetic. The ascetic owned nothing, living off the food given as alms and eating but once a day. He was to spend his time cultivating detachment from life and pursuing knowledge about salvation. With the increasing popularity of the Bhagavad Gita, which stresses detached action, the need to enter formally into this stage of life diminished considerably within the Hindu tradition.

Sanskrit and vernacular texts on dharma extol the importance of becoming an ascetic (sannyasi). Indeed, in India (and wherever Hindus have traveled) there are such ascetics in ochre or saffron clothes. While the texts on dharma specify that only male members of the upper three classes of society have the right to become ascetics, women have also embraced this stage of life. When a person enters this stage, he or she usually conducts his or her own death rituals. The ascetic is now socially dead and is formally disassociated from all relationships. An ascetic is religiously (and in India legally) a new person without connections.

SACRED BOOKS

There are multiple lines of religious authority in the Hindu traditions. While sacred texts are significant—and there have been hundreds of them—many were known only by a small minority of literate people. On the other hand, the popular epics and the stories from the books known as the Puranas have been passed on through oral and ritual traditions and through the performing arts.

The highest scriptural authority in philosophical Hinduism is a set of compositions known as sruti (that which is heard), more popularly known as the Vedas ("knowledge"). They date from about the second millennium b.c.e. Many Hindu traditions consider the Vedas to be of nonhuman origin. The Vedic seers (rishi) are said to have visually perceived and transmitted the mantras, poetry, and chants; according to traditional belief, they did not compose them. The rishi transmitted the words to their disciples, starting an oral tradition that has come down to the present. The words are said to have a fixed order that has to be maintained by a tradition of recitation.

There are four Vedic collections, known as Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva. Each one is divided into four parts. The first two parts—the samhita and the brahmana—deal with sacrificial rituals and the hymns to be recited during them, and the last two parts are more philosophical in nature. The last section, known as the Upanishads (literally "coming near" [a teacher for instruction]), focuses on existential concerns and the relationship between the human soul and the supreme being. The Upanishads were composed between the seventh and sixth centuries b.c.e. The Vedas also have appendices on the observance of ritual.

There are other fields of knowledge, called Vedangas, that are considered to be ancillary to the Vedic corpus. They include subjects such as phonetics and astronomy, which were considered to be extremely important. In addition, such areas of study as archery, music and dance (gandharva veda), and the science of health and long life (Ayurveda) were considered to be vital to the wellbeing of men and women.

The Vedic corpus was followed by a set of books called smriti (remembered) literature. Though acknowledged to be of human authorship, the smriti is nonetheless considered inspired. This literature is theoretically of lesser authority than the Vedas, but it has played a far more important role in the lives of Hindus for the last 2,500 years. Sometimes this category is divided into three subfields: the two epics, the old narratives (Puranas), and the codes of law and ethics (Dharma Sastras).

For most Hindus the two epics, the Ramayana ("Story of Rama") and the Mahabharata ("Great Epic of India," or the "Great Sons of Bharata"), are the most significant texts. They deal, above all, with situations of dharma. The epics are widely known among the many communities and sectarian divisions within the Hindu tradition, and they provide threads of unity through the centuries and across social divides.

The Ramayana has been memorized, recited, sung, danced, and enjoyed for 2,500 years. It has been a source of inspiration for generations of devotees in India and in other parts of the world. The story of the Ramayana centers on the young prince Rama. On the eve of Rama's coronation his father exiles him. In the forest Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, captures Rama's beautiful wife, Sita; the epic focuses on Rama's struggle to get her back. After a protracted battle Rama kills Ravana and is reunited with Sita. They eventually return to the kingdom and are crowned. Rama is held to be a just king; the term "Ramrajya" (kingdom or rule of Rama) has become the Hindu political ideal.

There have been many local versions of the Ramayana, including vernacular renderings, and the story has been theologically interpreted in many ways. The epic is regularly danced and acted in places of Hindu (and Buddhist) cultural influence in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand). The capital of Thailand for several centuries was named after Rama's capital, and the kings there bore the name "Rama" as part of their title.

The other epic, the Mahabharata, with approximately 100,000 verses, is considered to be the longest poem in the world. It is the story of the great struggle among the descendants of a king called Bharata; Indians call their country Bharat after this king. The main part of the story deals with a war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. They are cousins, but the Kauravas try to cheat the Pandavas out of their share of the kingdom and will not accept peace. A battle ensues in which all the major kingdoms are forced to take sides. The Pandavas emerge victorious but at a great emotional cost. All their sons and close relatives are killed in the battle.

The Bhagavad Gita ("Sacred Song") is a book of 18 chapters from the Mahabharata. It is esteemed as one of the holiest books in the Hindu tradition. People learned it by heart for centuries. The complete Mahabharata is not a book one would find in a typical home, but the Bhagavad Gita is widely copied. It is a conversation that takes place on a battlefield between Krishna and the warrior Arjuna. Just as the war of the Mahabharata is about to begin, Arjuna (one of the Pandava brothers) becomes distressed at the thought of having to fight against his cousins, uncles, and other relatives. Putting down his bow, he asks his cousin Krishna (who is portrayed as an incarnation of Vishnu) whether it is correct to fight a war in which many lives, especially those of one's own kin, are to be lost. Krishna replies in the affirmative; it is correct if we fight for what is right. One must fight for righteousness (dharma) after trying peaceful means. The Bhagavad Gita speaks of loving devotion to the Lord and the importance of selfless action. Krishna instructs Arjuna (who is generally understood to be any human soul who seeks spiritual guidance) on God, the nature of the human soul, and how one can reach liberation. A person may reach Vishnu/Krishna through devotion, knowledge, or selfless action. Some later interpreters think of these as three paths, and others consider them to be three aspects of the path of loving surrender to the supreme being.

The Puranas ("Ancient Lore") contain narratives about the Hindu deities and their manifestations on Earth to save human beings as well as accounts of the cycles of creation and destruction of the cosmos. In recounting the deeds of the various gods and goddesses, most of the Sanskrit Puranas focus on the supremacy of either Shiva, Vishnu, or the goddess Durga (more popularly known as Devi). There are also Puranas dedicated to Ganesha and other deities; Tamil Puranas speak about the valorous and saving acts of Murugan, the son of Shiva and Parvati. The Bhagavata Purana, one of the most popular of the Sanskrit Puranas, speaks at length about the various incarnations of Vishnu.

The Hindu understanding of time, which is explained in the Puranas, is that it has no beginning and no end. Time is an endless series of intervals, each one of which is the lifetime of a minor creator god called Brahma, which lasts for 311,040,000 million human years. Throughout each cycle the cosmos is periodically created and destroyed. At the end of each Brahma's life, the universe is absorbed into Vishnu, a new Brahma emerges, and a new cycle begins.

According to the Puranas, the cosmos is continually created and destroyed in cycles that are understood as the days and nights of the creator god Brahma. Within each of these days there is a basic cycle of time, a mahayuga, composed of four smaller units known as yugas, or aeons. Each yuga is shorter and worse than the one before it. The golden age (Krita Yuga) lasts 4,800 divine years. The years of the divine beings called devas are much longer than earthly years; a divine year is 360 human years. Therefore, the golden age lasts 1,728,000 earthly years. During this time dharma (righteousness) is on firm footing. The Treta age is shorter, lasting 3,600 divine years; dharma is then on three legs. The Dvapara age lasts 2,400 divine years, and dharma is then hopping on two legs. During the Kali Yuga, the worst of all possible ages, dharma is on one leg, and things get progressively worse. This age lasts for 1,200 divine years. We live in the degenerate Kali Yuga, which, according to traditional Hindu reckoning, began in about 3102 b.c.e. There is a steady decline throughout the yugas in morality, righteousness, life span, and human satisfaction. At the and of the Kali Yuga—obviously still a long time off—there will be no righteousness, no virtue, no trace of justice.

One thousand mahayugas make up a day of Brahma, which is approximately 4,320 million earthly years. The nights of Brahma are of equal length; it is generally understood that during Brahma's night creation is withdrawn. A total of 360 such days and an equal number of nights makes a year of Brahma, and Brahma lives for 100 divine years (311,040,000 million earthly years). After this the entire cosmos is absorbed into the body of Vishnu (or Shiva) and remains there until another Brahma is evolved.

The many texts of righteousness and duty, known as Dharma Sastras, were composed in the first millennium c.e. These focus on the issues of right behavior, including those that pertain to caste. Texts relating to astrology, medicine, sexual love, and power—all framed in religious discourses—were also composed in the first few centuries of the Common Era. The importance of many texts has been highlighted by calling them the fifth Veda.

While many of the Sanskrit texts are known in the vernacular all over India, there is also an extensive array of classical and folk literature that was composed in the vernacular languages. Tamil, a classical language that is still spoken, is one of the old languages and has a hallowed tradition of sophisticated literature going back well into the beginning of the Common Era. The earliest literature in Tamil, known as the Sangam texts, dealt primarily with love and war. Many local deities, including Ganesha and Murugan, sons of Shiva and Parvati, were greatly beloved in Tamil-speaking regions. Even from the earliest times there was extensive interaction and mutual influence between Sanskrit and vernacular texts. Tamil devotional literature was heavily influenced by the Sanskrit stories and texts. The Tamil "Sacred Utterance" (composed by the poet Nammalvar in the ninth century) was also known as the Tamil Veda and was introduced alongside the Sanskrit Vedas in temple and domestic liturgies.

The vernacular texts from the south moved north in the second millennium. By the second millennium there was extensive literature in many Indian languages. Particularly noteworthy are the poems written by the great devotional poets of South India as well as of the regions of Orissa, Bengal, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. These texts are well known and continue to be performed in many parts of India; they are more closely a part of Hindu life than the Vedas and other Sanskrit texts.

SACRED SYMBOLS

Hinduism is known for its numerous icons and images. Deities are represented in many postures and in various materials. The question of whether these are "symbols" or reality itself has been much contested within the Hindu traditions. Some philosophical schools think of them as symbols leading a person through meditation and concentration to reality; others think of the icons in the temples as actual incarnations of the deity itself. Some Hindus think that, just as the incarnations of the supreme being as Rama and Krishna are real manifestations and not illusory or symbolic, the infusion of the supreme in the material body of a sculpture or icon is real.

Gods and goddesses are identified with specific iconography and every position of the hands or feet. Many deities have several hands, each carrying a weapon or a flower to protect the devotees from harm. Some Hindus interpret the many arms of a deity as representing omnipotence. The numerous attributes of the deities, as well as their weapons, are seen as symbolic of values, concepts, or qualities, and there is no general agreement on their interpretation. For instance, the conch shell and wheel of Vishnu are sometimes understood to be the weapons he uses to destroy evil, but others think of them as representing space and time.

Many Hindu deities are associated with animals or birds. Although the sacred texts give traditional reasons for this, some believers understand the iconography in an allegorical way. Vishnu reclines on a serpent and flies on a bird called Garuda. Lakshmi is flanked by elephants; Murugan rides a peacock; and Ganesha has an elephant head and rides a small mouse. There is no uniform understanding of what these represent or symbolize, but there are many viewpoints. Vishnu's serpent, called Sesha, is seen as a paradigmatic servant of Vishnu, transforming his form to serve the deity's many manifestations. The serpent is also known as Ananta (literally "infinite"), and according to some people, it represents the coils of time. For some devotees the bird Garuda represents the celestial forces in contrast to the terrestrial powers of the serpent. Garuda also symbolizes the Vedas in traditional literature. Elephants are said to represent royalty, auspiciousness, and rain-laden monsoon clouds. Ganesha's elephant head, on the other hand, is thought to symbolize his ability to overcome obstacles.

Shiva and Parvati are frequently represented as abstract forms known as linga and yoni. Linga means distinguishing mark or gender, and yoni is translated as a womb; thus, many textbooks on Hinduism tend to depict the linga and yoni as sexual symbols. Most Hindus, however, do not see them as phallic or as having sexual connotations but rather as representing the masculine and feminine creative energies of the universe.

Many Hindus also venerate mandalas—large, geometric patterns that represent the supreme being in aniconic (abstract) form. These square or circular designs are symbols of the entire universe or of various realms of beings. The diagrams are a visual analog to the strings of words known as mantras. The most important mantra in the Hindu tradition is "Om," which is recited either by itself or as a prefix to the many mantras dedicated to various deities. "Om" is considered to be made up of three letters: a, u, and m. The various Hindu traditions give different meanings to these letters, which may be understood as aural symbols.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous symbol in Hindu art is the lotus flower. Red and gold lotuses dominate literature, art, and theologies, and they have a wide variety of interpretations. The lotus is said to be a symbol of auspiciousness; for others, it may symbolize the grace of the Goddess (she is often depicted sitting on a lotus). Still other traditions think of the thousand-petaled lotus flower as being near the crown of the head and believe that the spiritual power that rises up a person's spine reaches the lotus on enlightenment.

EARLY AND MODERN LEADERS

Scholars, priests, teachers, and ritual specialists have all been considered inspired and inspiring teachers of the Hindu traditions. Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833) was a theologian who is frequently called a reformer. Born into an orthodox Brahman family, he became familiar with Western social life and the Christian scriptures. He also read the Upanishads and the books of dharma and came to the conclusion that what he objected to in Hindu practice was not part of classical Hinduism. Roy discarded most of the epic and Puranic materials as myths that stood in the way of reason and social reform. In 1828 he set up a society to discuss the nature of the supreme reality (Brahman) as portrayed in the Upanishads. This organization came to be called the Brahmo Samaj (congregation of Brahman). Roy translated some of the Upanishads and other selected texts and distributed them for free. A pioneer for education, he started new periodicals, established educational institutions, and worked to improve the status of Hindu women.

Dayananda Sarasvati (1824–83) started the Arya Samaj, another reform movement. Dayananda considered only the early hymns of the Rig Veda to be the true scripture. Because these hymns were actionoriented, Dayananda advocated a life of education and vigorous work. He taught that a good society is one in which people work to uplift humanity and that this in itself leads to the welfare of a human soul and body. The Arya Samaj is popular in parts of northern India and is almost unknown in the south.

A well-known figure in the twentieth century was Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna mission (in India). He spoke about the Hindu traditions at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893 and became the face of Hindu thought in the West. He had been inspired by Ramakrishna (1836–86; a Bengali teacher considered by many to be a saint), and he articulated a form of Vedanta philosophy based loosely on the interpretation of the eighth-century philosopher Shankara, discussed below under MAJOR THEOLOGIANS AND AUTHORS. Vivekananda's influence on later Hinduism was tremendous. His vision of Hinduism as a "universal" and "tolerant" religion, a form of open tradition that incorporates many viewpoints, has been popular among Hindus in the diaspora in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Other twentieth-century teachers considered to be saints (a word that is used in the Hindu tradition to mean an enlightened teacher) include female gurus such as Anandamayi Ma (1893–1972), Amritanandamayi Ma (born in 1953), and Karunamayi Ma (born in 1956) and male gurus Shirdi Sai Baba (died in 1918) and Satya Sai Baba (born in 1926). The latter is a charismatic teacher from Andhra Pradesh in southern India. His followers believe he is an avatar (incarnation) of the deities Shiva and Shakti (the Goddess).

One of the best-known teachers in the West is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born c. 1911), whose articulation of Transcendental Meditation has explicit Hindu origins and overtones. Nevertheless, Transcendental Meditation is not ordinarily identified as Hindu or even as "religion" but more as a stress-reduction technique. The teachings, however, of Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, who arrived in New York in 1965 and started a devotional school of Hinduism called the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and Swami Chinmayananda (1916–93), who taught a nondualistic form of Vedanta, are identified with specific traditions within Hinduism.

While Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) is not considered to be a religious leader, his actions were strongly influenced by religious texts and practices. His ideas of nonviolence and actions based on truth-principles have all been part of the larger Hindu tradition in the last few millennia.

MAJOR THEOLOGIANS AND AUTHORS

Most of the important Hindu theologians in the last 1,500 years can broadly be classified as teachers of a philosophical school called Vedanta. This field of philosophical enquiry remains important in Hinduism. The term Vedanta was traditionally used to denote the Upanishads, the final part of the Vedas, but the term has more popularly been used to denote systems of thought based on a coherent interpretation of three works, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutra (a text composed possibly after the first century). The Brahma Sutra, which has short aphorisms, was meant to be a mnemonic aid, summarizing the teachings of the other two texts. Because many phrases did not have an obvious meaning, Vedantic philosophers wrote extensive commentaries on this text.

Shankara, who lived in about 800 c.e., was a prominent interpreter of Vedanta. He spoke of this Earth and life cycle as having limited reality; once the soul realizes that it is and always has been Brahman (the supreme being), "this life passes away like a dream." For Shankara, reality is nondual (advaita). There is only one reality, Brahman, and this Brahman is indescribable and without any attributes. Liberation is removal of ignorance and a dispelling of illusion through the power of transforming knowledge. Shankara is said to have established monasteries in different parts of India. There is reportedly an unbroken succession of teachers in these monasteries, and all of them have the title of "Shankara, the teacher" (Shankaracharya).

Shankara's philosophy was criticized by later Vedanta philosophers such as Ramanuja (traditionally 1017–1137) and Madhva (c. 1199–1278). Ramanuja was the most significant interpreter of theistic Vedanta for the Sri Vaishnava, a community in South India that worships Vishnu and his consorts Sri (Lakshmi) and Bhu (the goddess Earth). Ramanuja proclaimed the supremacy of Vishnu-Narayana and emphasized that devotion to Vishnu would lead to ultimate liberation. According to Ramanuja, Vishnu (whose name literally means "all-pervasive") is immanent in the entire universe, pervading all souls and material substances but also transcending them. The philosopher Madhva, in classifying some souls as eternally bound, is unique in the Hindu tradition. For him, even in liberation there are different grades of enjoyment and bliss. He was also one of the explicitly dualistic Vedanta philosophers, holding that the human soul and Brahman are ultimately separate and not identical in any way. The devotional philosophy of Chaitanya (sixteenth century) has been popular in the eastern state of Bengal and, in the twentieth century, in the United States (through the ISKCON community).

Reactions to colonial rule can be seen in the teachings and activism of Ram Mohun Roy (1772–1833), Dayananda Saraswati (1825–83), and the poet-philosopher Aurobindo (1872–1950). Ram Mohun Roy, discussed above under EARLY AND MODERN LEADERS, advocated educational and social reforms. Dayanand Saraswati opened educational institutions for women and raised people's consciousness about Vedic teachings. Aurobindo was initially a radical who protested against British rule. He eventually taught a new interpretation of Vedanta that portrayed the ascent of the human spirit combining with the descent of the divine into the human being.

Other leaders, such as the novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–94), also challenged the presence of the British in India; the philosopher, writer, and religious activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920) advocated a more activist approach to achieve independence from the colonial powers. Political and cultural philosophies came together in the writings of Veer Savarkar (1883–1966), who championed the concept of "Hinduness" (Hindutva). He distinguished this from the religion itself and argued—on the basis of shared culture, geography, and race—for the unification of the inhabitants of India.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The social organization of the Hindu tradition can be discussed in many ways. The word "Hindu" was not commonly used to describe people's identity in India until the nineteenth century. A person's social class (varna, literally "color"), subgroup or caste, sectarian community, philosophical group, and linguistic community contribute to creating the sense of "self" within the Hindu tradition. There are many communities within Hinduism, and many of them have their own chains of leaders. In addition to these communities, there are charismatic teachers (gurus) who command large followings around the world. Sometimes clan groups (gotra, literally "cowpen") and the region of origin also figure in the organization of Hindus. In diaspora communities Hindus tend to congregate along linguistic lines.

The word "caste" (derived from a Portuguese word meaning "a division in society") is used as a shorthand term to refer to thousands of stratified and circumscribed social communities that have multiplied through the centuries. "Caste" has sometimes been used to mean varna (class) and other times to mean jati (birth group). The beginnings of the caste system are seen in the "Hymn to the Supreme Person" in the Rig Veda, with its enumeration of four classes, or varna: priestly (Brahman), ruling (Kshatriya), mercantile (Vaishya), and servant (Sudra) classes. From the simple fourfold structure eventually arose a plethora of social and occupational divisions. The texts on dharma specify the names of various subcastes that come from marriages between the various classes. Ritual practices, dietary rules, and some-times dialects differ between the castes.

Although the Vedas spoke of four major social divisions (varnas), most Hindus historically have identified themselves as belonging to a specific birth group, or jati. In many parts of India the word jati may be translated as caste or community, but the numerous jatis do not neatly fit into the fourfold caste system. There are several hundred jatis in India. It has been a matter of controversy whether a person is born into a caste or whether caste could be decided by a person's qualities and propensities. Although there have been many arguments in favor of the latter concept, the idea of birth group gained hold in India, and now a person's caste in India is determined at birth. Caste is only one of the many factors in social hierarchies; age, gender, economic class, and even a person's piety figure in the equation. At various times the hierarchies were reversed by exalting "lower"-caste devotees, but they were seldom discarded.

Contrary to popular perceptions, there was, historically, a great deal of caste mobility in India. This was particularly true in the case of warriors. Kings and warriors (kshatriyas) generally traced their ancestry to either the lineage of the sun (surya vamsa) or the lineage of the Moon (chandra vamsa), both of which go back to the primeval progenitors of humanity. This harking back to the right genealogies was even done in places such as Cambodia and Java, where there were Hindu rulers. These are classic instances of the ruling class seeking legitimacy by invoking divine antecedents; even usurpers of thrones eventually began to trace their ancestries thus. In the Hindu tradition, both then and now, lines of claimed biological descent are all important. The Kshatriya ("royal" or "warrior") families held the power of rulership and governance, and rituals of later Hinduism explicitly emphasized their connection with divine beings.

Outside the circuit of the castes, there are many other groups collectively called "out-caste" in English. These resulted either from mixed marriages or, more often, from association with professions deemed inferior. Such occupations included working with animal hides and dealing with corpses, because dead animal or human flesh is considered polluting.

While texts and practices clearly imply hierarchy within the castes, some Hindus have interpreted the castes as a division of labor, with each caste being responsible for a particular function in society. This concept may have been predominant historically in the practice of social divisions in Hindu communities of Cambodia. From inscriptional evidence it seems probable that Cambodian kings awarded castes and caste names to groups of people or even to an entire village. These names suggest ritual functions in the palace or connections with work, and in Southeast Asia the caste system seems not to be based on birth groups.

The Tilaka and Religious
Affiliation

The tilaka, the forehead mark worn by many Hindus, is often cosmetic, but in many cases the color, shape, and material with which it is made indicates whether someone is a follower of a particular god. These sectarian marks may be created with materials such as white clay, sandalwood paste, kajal (made from the soot of an oil-lamp), or specific kinds of ash.

In general, vertical forehead marks (which are often U-shaped) denote that a person is a follower of the god Vishnu and the goddess Lakshmi or a devotee of the lord Krishna (whom some Hindus hold to be an incarnation of Vishnu). Such marks are usually made of white clay; sometimes the materials are taken from places where Krishna is supposed to have lived. The U-shaped mark represents the foot of Vishnu and signifies his grace. There may be a red line in the middle; this symbolizes Lakshmi, who is considered to be inseparable from Vishnu. Horizontal or slightly curved crescent marks made of ash or other substances, with a red dot in the middle, denote that the person worships Shiva and the goddess Parvati. The three horizontal lines are sometimes interpreted as representing the three syllables of the mantra "Om" or the three gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The ash is also symbolic of the destruction of one's ego. Combinations of various dots and crescents usually show a preference for the Goddess (Devi) in one of her many manifestations.

Some sectarian forehead marks are two vertical lines with an empty space in between; others include a round dot (bindu). The empty space or the dot is considered to indicate the ineffable nature of the supreme being. Both theistic and nontheistic believers in the Hindu traditions understand the supreme being as beyond description, and the void expresses this sentiment. In an extension of this belief, some Hindus wear two dots, one white and one black. The white dot is said to portray the supreme being (Brahman); the black dot symbolizes the belief that the supreme deity has glorious qualities such as mercy, compassion, and generosity.

Sectarian divisions cut across caste lines and form a different template for social divisions. Some Hindu groups are divided along lines of which god they worship; the followers of Vishnu are called Vaishnavas, Shiva's devotees are called Shaivas, and so on. Members of sectarian communities and castes tend to be endogamous. In addition to caste and sectarian affiliation, philosophical communities have formed social divisions in many parts of India.

There is no single teacher or religious leader who speaks for all Hindus, nor are there neatly arranged denominations or groups. There are thousands of communities and groups, each with multiple leaders. There are several kinds of teachers in the Hindu tradition. A religious teacher within the many sectarian Hindu communities may be called acharya or guru. Usually, the term acharya designates any formal head of a monastery, sect, or subcommunity—a teacher who comes in a long line of successive leaders. Some of the more enduring lines of acharya succession can be seen in the communities that follow a noted theologian. The followers of teachers such as Shankara (eighth century), Ramanuja (eleventh century), Madhva (thirteenth century), Chaitanya (fifteenth century), and Swaminarayan (nineteenth century) have long, unbroken chains of teachers. The philosophical traditions founded by Ramanuja and Chaitanya, among others, venerate the religious teacher almost as much as the deity they worship. In their pious writings the living, human teacher is seen to be more important than God. Absolute surrender to the teacher is said to be a path to liberation. In addition to these, there have been thousands of ascetics—women and men possessed by a god or spirit—who have been revered. There have been mediums, storytellers, and sadhus (holy men) who have participated in the religious leadership of the Hindu traditions. These leaders have commanded anything from veneration to absolute obedience. Any charismatic leader may be known by his followers as guru (teacher) or swami (master).

Some followers consider their teachers to be an avatar (incarnation) of the supreme being on Earth. Others consider these teachers to be spiritual masters who are highly evolved souls—that is, beings who have ascended above the cares of human life to a state of self-realization or perfection.

In the late twentieth century the Internet became an important tool of communication for Hindus. Devotees of various traditional teachers or gurus or followers of a particular community organize cyber-communities for discussions on their teachings. These Hindu communities have been enormously successful, mobilizing and connecting people from around the globe. Teachers from India regularly address these devotees by what are called tele-upanyasam, or tele-sermons.

HOUSES OF WORSHIP AND HOLY PLACES

Hundreds of thousands of villages, towns, forests, groves, rivers, and mountains in India are considered sacred. In a larger religio-political context, India is personified as a mother in literature and practice, and almost every part of this motherland is said to be sacred. In recent centuries it has been hailed in many songs as "Mother India" (Bharata Mata) and as a compassionate mother goddess. While many early texts advocated living in India as part of one's religious duties, Hindus have also migrated to other countries—starting with Southeast Asia in the centuries before the Common Era—and recreated the sacred lands in their new homes.

Although there are many standard Hindu pilgrimage itineraries, some places are considered especially sacred. Pilgrimage routes are often organized thematically. For instance, in India devotees may visit the 108 places where shakti, or the power of the Goddess, is said to be present; the 68 places where emblems of Shiva are said to have emerged "self-born"; the 12 places where Shiva appears as the "flame of creative energies" (jyotir linga); the 8 places where Vishnu spontaneously manifested himself (a form called svayam vyakta); and so on. Hindu holy texts extol the sanctity of many individual sites. For pious Hindus, to live in such places or to undertake a pilgrimage to one of them is enough to destroy a person's sins and to assist in the attainment of liberation from the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Texts that discuss the sanctity of the holy places tend to have narratives about how a particular deity manifested himself or herself there and promised rewards in this life and in the afterlife for all the worshipers. Most holy places also have temples to mark this hierophany (divine revelation). The temple itself is like a "port of transit," a place from which a human being may "cross over" (tirtha) the ocean of life and death. Because water is also considered to be purifying, many temples and holy places are located near an ocean, lake, river, or spring. When such a body of water is not close by, there is usually an artificial ritual well or pool, a feature that may date back to the time of the Harappan civilization (c. 3000 to 1750 b.c.e.). Pilgrims sometimes cleanse themselves in these pools before praying in the temple.

Mountains, lakes, groves, and rivers are also sacred. The Ganges, Yamuna, Cauvery, and Narmada rivers are believed to be so holy that bathing in them destroys a person's sins. Confluences of two rivers or of a river and the sea are particularly sacred. Pilgrims journey regularly to bathe at Triveni Sangama ("Confluence of Three Rivers") at Prayag (an ancient city now the site of Allahabad), where the Ganges, the Yamuna, and a mythical underground river, the Sarasvati, all meet. Small sealed jars of holy water from the Ganges are kept in homes and are used in domestic rituals to purify the dead and dying.

Many temples are located on hills and mountains because they are considered to be sacred. In Southeast Asia, where there were no hills, artificial mountain-temples were erected. It is not clear exactly when temples became popular in India, because the earlier houses of worship were probably made of perishable materials. Inscriptions in Champa (now Vietnam) mention Hindu houses of worship that existed in Southeast Asia during the early centuries of the Common Era.

Some of the early places of worship were in the Chalukya capital of Vatapi (modern Badami), where in the late sixth century c.e. exquisite carvings of Vishnu and Shiva were carved into rock caves. That an adjacent cave is a Jain holy site is evidence of the amicable coexistence of religious traditions in India. Experimental modes of temple architecture can be seen in nearby Aihole and Pattadakal (c. seventh–ninth centuries).

Temple architecture was different in northern and southern India, with many variations within both areas. Temples, palaces, and all buildings were part of the guided practices of the Hindu tradition. Texts on architecture, dwelling places, and choice of building sites gave instructions on how to build these structures and on the ratio of the measurements. Large complexes have many shrines, each oriented in a specific direction. Temples were major religious, cultural, and economic centers. They were (and to a large extent continue to be) built to represent the whole cosmos, and there are elaborate rules that determine their design. Many temples, such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, also include proportions connected with Hindu systems of time measurement. For instance, the various measurements of a temple could correspond to the number of years in the various yugas (ages). Many temples were also built in accordance with the observed movements of the Sun, Moon, and stars. The sun would shine on icons, sculptures, or specific areas of the temple at certain times, such as the summer and winter solstices and the equinoxes.

The main part of a temple is an inner shrine where a deity is consecrated. Hindu worship is not generally congregational, so the entrances to the inner shrine allow only small groups of people to enter. For many sectarian movements, the deity in this shrine is not a symbol; it is the actual presence of the god or goddess in the midst of human beings, a veritable incarnation. The deity resides in the temple as long as the devotees worship there. Devotees believe that the presence of God in the temple does not detract from his or her presence in heaven, immanence in the world, or presence in a human soul. The deity is always complete and whole no matter how many manifestations take place.

In most parts of southern India the pan-Hindu deities are known and worshiped only with local names; in the Tirumala-Tirupati temple (the wealthiest religious institution in India), for instance, Vishnu is known as Venkateswara, or the Lord of the Venkata Hills. Many of the temple complexes in India are associated with the major sects—that is, they enshrine Vishnu, Shiva, or the Goddess and their entourages. In many of them the deities are known by their local or regional names. A typical temple may have separate shrines for the deity, his or her spouse, other divine attendants, and saints. Temples in the diaspora generally cater to a broader community of worshipers and have images of Shiva, Vishnu, the Goddess, and other deities enshrined under one roof.

WHAT IS SACRED?

A holy space in the Hindu tradition is one in which devotees come to see the enshrined deity and hear sacred words from holy texts. In the past religious teachers were careful about whom they imparted their teachings to, and they screened their devotees care-fully. Today, however, the Internet allows anyone to see images of deities, teachers, and gurus and even to hear the recitation and music sacred texts and songs. Some websites call their home pages "electronic ashrams." An ashram is a traditional hermitage or place of learning.

Some Hindus believe that there is no aspect of life that is not sacred to them, but not all Hindus interpret sacredness this way. In Hinduism the lines between the sacred and the secular are blurred and depend on context. Every paper and every book is sacred because they represent knowledge; if a person's feet come into contact with a sheet of paper, a Hindu may spontaneously do a small act of veneration to compensate for the disrespect.

While many aspects of nature are sacred, a few important emblems are notably holy. Special ash that the devotees of Shiva put on their forehead is holy. Hindus venerate particular plants that are said to be sacred to Vishnu (tulsi leaves and flowers of the parijata tree) or Shiva (leaves of the bilva tree). Cows are not worshiped, but they are held as sacred and venerated. In ritual contexts snakes are considered emblematic of good fortune or fertility and are deemed worthy of respect.

HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS

Hindus celebrate festivals throughout the year. There are domestic, temple, and public celebrations. The birthdays of the many deities, especially Ganesha, Krishna, and Rama, are popular. Hindus have a lunar calendar that is periodically adjusted to the solar year; thus, while the dates of the festivals change, they come within the span of a month. Most festivals are marked in the lunar calendar, and many Hindus know whether the divine birthdays occur on the waxing or waning moon cycles.

Festivals can be local or pan-Indian. Holi and Onam are examples of regional festivals. Holi, a spring festival celebrated in some parts of northern India with bonfires and an exuberant throwing of colored powder on friends and crowds, commemorates various events narrated in the Puranas. In the state of Kerala, Onam is celebrated in August and September; the fifth incarnation of Vishnu as a dwarf-Brahman is remembered in that festival.

Other festivals, such as Navaratri and Dipavali (known as Divali in some areas), are more or less pan-Hindu festivals. The festival of Navaratri (a word meaning "nine nights") lasts for nine nights and ten days. It is celebrated by Hindus all over India, but in different ways and for different reasons. The festival begins on the new moon that occurs between 15 September and 14 October. In southern India Navaratri is dedicated to the goddesses Sarasvati, Lakshmi, and Parvati, and in northern India it commemorates the battle between the prince Rama and the demon-king Ravana.

In the region of Tamil Nadu, Navaratri is largely a festival for women. A room is set apart and filled with exquisite dolls for the play of the goddesses. Elaborate tableaux are set up depicting epic and Puranic scenes. Every evening women and children dressed in bright silks visit one another, admire the kolu (display of dolls), play musical instruments, and sing songs, usually in praise of one of the goddesses. Some Hindus believe that the goddess Durga killed the buffalo-demon Mahisa during these nine or ten days. Hindus in the state of West Bengal call this festival Durga Puja. They make sumptuous statues of Durga and worship her. In the state of Gujarat the Navaratri celebration includes performing two traditional dances at night: garbha, a circular dance in which a sacred lamp is kept in the center as a manifestation of the goddess, and dandiya, a dance with sticks, reminiscent of the dance that Krishna is said to have done with the cowherd girls.

The last two days of Navaratri are called Ayudha Puja (veneration of weapons and machines). Hindus acknowledge the importance of all vehicles and many other instruments that day. On the ninth day of the festival the goddess Sarasvati, the patron of learning and music, is worshiped. People place musical instruments, writing implements, and textbooks in front of her and the display of dolls, to be blessed by her for the rest of the year. The next day is the victorious tenth day (Vijaya Dasami), dedicated to Lakshmi. People start new ventures, account books, and learning on that day.

Dipavali (literally "necklace of lamps"), one of the most popular Hindu festivals, occurs on the new moon between 15 October and 14 November. Seen as the beginning of a New Year in some parts of India, it is celebrated by decorating houses with lights, setting off fire-crackers, and wearing new clothes. As with Navaratri, Hindus celebrate Dipavali for many reasons. In southern India it is believed that on that day at dawn, Krishna killed the demon Narakasura, thus insuring a victory of light over darkness. Fireworks are used in celebrations all over India. In North India Rama's return to the city of Ayodhya and his coronation are celebrated on Dipavali.

MODE OF DRESS

Every region and every community in India has its own code of dress. Historically, most Hindu communities celebrated the body and wore clothes to enhance and adorn it. After the arrival of Islam in northern India in the twelfth century c.e., the covering of the body initially became fashionable and then a way of depicting one's modesty, especially in northern India. In the south there was less covering, and even now on ritual occasions men in the Brahmanic communities may not wear much on the upper part of their bodies. In the north, however, women cover their heads, a custom that is completely avoided in the south.

Most women wear the sari; they wrap a piece of cloth (varying between six and nine yards) around the waist, and a piece of it is then draped over the breasts and over one shoulder. While the six-yard sari has become standard in post-independence India, there are many variations in the way it is tied. Many urban Hindu women have adopted Western clothes.

In the Hindu tradition the human body is a carrier of a person's cosmology and worldviews. The way Hindus care for it, adorn it, carry and move it, and dispose of it all reflect something about their engagement with the world, the universe, and the divine.

The most common, yet ambiguous, manifestation of Hindu religion and culture is the forehead mark worn by many adherents. Traditionally women most often wear the mark, but in many parts of India male ascetics, temple priests, and devotees also put on the marks in a prominent manner. While women wear it every day, many men wear it only for religious rituals. These marks have several meanings. How the mark is interpreted depends upon factors such as the gender and marital status of the person wearing it, the occasion for which the mark is worn, the shape and materials with which it is made, the particular sectarian community from which the person comes, and occasionally a person's caste.

At the simplest level the mark, known as a tilaka (meaning "small, like a tila" [sesame seed]), is a form of adornment with decorative value, part of a large repertoire of ornamentation used to enhance appearance. Over the centuries men and women in India have painted different parts of their bodies and faces; the drawing of the tilaka was one central piece in this decorative exercise. In this spirit most of the marks worn by women today are stickers in different colors and shapes with little theological value. As such, many people dismiss it as not being a "religious" mark because it seems more distinctive of a geographic region than of a religious tradition. Kumkum, a red powder made from turmeric, is frequently dabbed onto the image of the Goddess in a temple and then distributed among the devotees. Hindus regularly use this kumkum, which is blessed by the deity, to make their forehead marks. Even women who wear plastic stickers often pause to put a hint of this sacred powder on their foreheads to proclaim that their husbands are alive.

The marks are not always merely decorative. Many also denote sectarian or religious affiliation. When worn correctly in ritual situations, the shape and color not only indicate which god or goddess the person worships but also to which socioreligious community he or she belongs. It also specifies which theologian or philosopher is important in the religious community from which the person hails.

Some texts and images portray the god Shiva as having a third eye in the center of his forehead. While most Hindus believe that this eye is unique to Shiva, occasionally, in folklore and meditative practice, it is held that all human beings have a nascent "eye" of wisdom in their foreheads. This eye is said to generate spiritual heat and will be opened at a time of intense religious experience. Thus, the forehead mark is said to represent this third eye of wisdom. Some interpreters say that the use of herbal powders on the skin of the forehead regulates this spiritual energy for the devotee.

A round, decorative, forehead mark is seen as a symbol of saubhagya (good fortune) in many texts and in popular practice in India. Androcentric (male-centered) texts interpret good fortune for a woman as the state of being married and having her husband alive. Thus, married women often wear the mark as a symbol of their married status and as a sign of the role that they play in society. In many communities of Hinduism, it is mandatory for the woman to remove this symbol of good fortune if she is widowed. Such practices display a long tradition of customs that belittle and objectify some women. In certain traditions, such as the Vaishnava (followers of Vishnu), however, marital status does not affect the wearing of the sectarian mark. A woman who belongs to any of these communities would consider herself to be in a state of "good fortune" in being a devotee of Lakshmi and Vishnu and would always wear it.

DIETARY PRACTICES

Perhaps one of the most important areas of Hindu life is food. The treatises on dharma spend the most amount of time discussing the issue of marriage, and the second area of interest is food. What is consumed, who consumes it, who prepares the food, when it is done, how much is eaten, with whom one eats, what direction one faces when one eats, and more details are all addressed with great detail—but are often negated in the contexts of faith and devotion.

Food regulations may differ not only between the various castes and communities of the Hindu traditions but also by region, gender, the stages of a person's life, the times of the year, the phases of the Moon, the ritual calendar, and an individual's obligations. Contrary to the perception of many Westerners, most Hindus are not vegetarians. Whether a Hindu practices vegetarianism is determined by his or her membership in a specific community or caste. The cow is seen as a nurturing mother. Sometimes cows are considered the "residence" of the goddess Lakshmi. Hence, most Hindus in the last two millennia have tended not to consume beef.

There are regular periods of fasting and feasting in the Hindu calendar, and these periods differ for each community. Many Vaishnavas (followers of Vishnu) have typically fasted or avoided grain on ekadashi day (the 11th day of the waxing or waning Moon). Others fast during specific festival seasons such as Navaratri. Some fasts are specific—refraining from grains, rice, salt, and so on for a period of time. Men and women sometimes fast for half a day or for several hours on days when they have performed rituals to the ancestors.

For many Hindus it is not enough just to be a vegetarian; food, like many other material substances, is said to have three qualities. These are sattva (purity); rajas (passion, energy, movement); and tamas (sloth, stupor, rest). Thus, some Hindu communities refrain from having onions and garlic because they are said to have a pre-ponderance of rajas and tamas. Several vegetables are also prohibited for similar reasons; for example, food that has been tasted by others and leftover food are considered to be ritually polluted and are also prohibited. While there are hundreds of restrictions on food, there are certain devotional contexts where food that can be considered ritually polluting is made acceptable because of a devotee's faith. There are several Hindu narratives about how prohibited food was offered to the deity and it was accepted because the devotee offered it with love.

In many temples ritual food is offered to the deity and then distributed to the worshipers as divine favor (prasada). For more than a thousand years devotees have endowed land and monies to temples so that the revenue from them could be used for the preparation of food and then distributed to the pilgrims. Many families even now sponsor feasts or donate food in temples to celebrate birthdays or in memory of family members.

Right eating is not just what a person can eat or avoid; in the texts on dharma as well as in orthoprax (orthodox in practices) houses, it involves issues such as the caste and gender of the cook (preferably a high-caste male or any woman, except at times when she is menstruating); the times a person may eat (for example, twice a day and not during twilight); and not eating food cooked the day before.

Women's Contributions to the Hindu Tradition

Although the literature on dharma does not give many rights to a woman, there have been a number of strong women who have contributed to Hindu society. Women gave religious advice and wrote scholarly works. These women were respected, honored, and in some cases even venerated. In the Rig Veda there are hymns to various deities composed by women such as Ghosha, Apala, and Lopamudra. In the Upanishads, Maitreyi, the wife of the philosopher Yajñavalkya, questions him in depth about the nature of reality. Gargi Vachaknavi, a woman philosopher, challenges Yajñavalkya with questions in a public debate. There were probably more women composers and philosophers, but they are not noted in the texts. In time, many parts of the text, including verses composed by women, were lost. It is also possible that when literature became more androcentric (male-centered), the women's compositions that came after the Vedas were suppressed. Nevertheless, women continued to be involved in poetry and philosophy. Starting in the eighth century women poets such as Andal, Karaikkal Ammaiyar, and Akka Mahadevi rejected married life and dedicated passionate poetry to Vishnu and Shiva. They have been honored and venerated as saints in the Sri Vaishsnava, Shaiva, and Vira Shaiva traditions.

Women, especially those from royal families, were also benefactors of temples and other institutions. For example, in 966 c.e. in Tiru Venkatam (the city of Tirupati, in southern India), a woman called Samavai endowed money to celebrate major festivals and to consecrate a processional image of the lord. The temple at Tirupati has the largest endowments and sources of revenue in India today. Studies have shown that Samavai was not an isolated example. We know, for instance, that queens of the Chola dynasty (c. 846–1279) were enthusiastic patrons of temples and religious causes for the Shaiva community of South India in about the tenth century.

The greatest amount of discussion in the Dharma Sastra texts is spent on forbidden foods, which varied in different time periods and between authors. It is generally agreed that most people ate meat, even beef, possibly up to the beginning of the Common Era. It is a matter of some controversy whether Indians ate beef during the time of the Vedas and whether the cow was a protected animal; however, it is fairly well accepted that most Indians ate other kinds of meat and fowl then.

RITUALS

Hindu temple rituals are complex, and in many temples there may be a celebration almost every other day. Ritual worship is divided into daily, fortnightly, monthly, and annual cycles. On ritual occasions in southern India the deity is taken in a procession through the streets near the temple in special floats or enormous chariots. Most of the larger temples take notions of ritual purity seriously, and therefore women are not allowed to worship during the time of menstruation. In many South Indian temples there is not much gender segregation during the rituals. Worship is individual rather than congregational, and the modes of prayer are dictated by many texts. Frequently the priest—a male member of the Brahman caste—offers the prayers on behalf of the devotee. Usually only the priests are allowed to enter the inner shrines of a temple. After the ritual prayer a lamp or camphor light is waved in a circle in front of the deity in a ritual called arati, and in northern India a special song is sung at this time.

Rituals performed in the home are generally called puja (literally "worship"). Worship of the deity or of a spiritual teacher at a home shrine is one of the most significant ways in which Hindus express their devotion. Many Hindu households set aside some space (a cabinet shelf or an entire room) at home where pictures or small images of the deities are enshrined. Puja may involve simple acts of daily devotion, such as the lighting of oil lamps and incense sticks, recitation of prayers, or offering of food to the deity. In home worship simpler versions of some temple rituals take place. In daily worship family members lead the rites, but more elaborate or specialized rituals of worship, such as the ones to Satyanarayana (a manifestation of Vishnu) on full-moon days, may involve the participation of a priest or special personnel. The concept of appropriate hospitality guides home worship. The image of the deity receives the hospitality accorded to an honored guest in the home, including ritual bathing, anointing with ghee (clarified butter), offerings of food and drink, lighted lamps, and garlands of flowers.

Domestic rituals by women may be performed on a daily, recurring, or occasional schedule. While many of the well-known rituals are performed for the welfare of the family and for earthly happiness, a few are performed for personal salvation or liberation. Many rituals, such as pilgrimages, worshiping at home shrines or temples, and singing devotional songs, are similar to patterns of worship practiced by men, but some are unique to married women whose husbands are alive. Underlying many of the rites is the notion that women are powerful and that rites performed by them have potency. While many rituals conducted by Hindu women share certain features, there are significant differences among the many communities, castes, and regions.

Perhaps in no rite within the Hindu tradition is there more regional variation than in a wedding ceremony. Choosing the right spouse for a daughter or son is usually accomplished with the help of an extensive family network and sometimes by advertising in newspapers or on the Internet. In many communities, after the prospective couple's caste, community, economic, and educational compatibility is addressed, the detailed horo-scopes of the bride and bridegroom are matched. Apart from the several regional and community rites that accompany it, the sacrament of marriage involves several basic features for it even to be considered legal. These include the kanya dana (the gift of the virgin by the father), pani grahana (the clasping of hands), sapta padi (taking seven steps together around fire, which is the eternal witness), and mangalya dharana (the giving of auspiciousness to the bride). In addition to these, the bride and bridegroom exchange garlands.

The ceremony itself lasts several hours and may involve several changes of elaborate clothing for the bride, who is adorned with expensive jewelry. Often the couple sits on a platform with a fire nearby, to which offerings are made. The bride's parents have an active role to play, as do specific relatives (the groom's sister and the bride's brother and maternal uncle) at particular moments in the ritual, but the hundreds of guests are free to come and go as they please. In one of the central rituals the bridegroom's family presents the bride with "the gift of auspiciousness." The gift is a necklace or string, called the mangala sutra (string of auspiciousness or happiness). It may be a gold necklace, a string of black beads, a yellow thread, or anything else that the woman may wear around her neck. The necklace is adorned with the insignia of the god the family worships. The South Indian bridegroom ties this string or places the necklace around the bride's neck as her symbol of marriage. It corresponds to a wedding ring in Western society. There is no equivalent symbol for the bridegroom, but in the castes in which a man wears the sacred thread, married men wear a double thread. The central rituals are to take place only near a sacred fire.

Death causes a state of pollution for the family. This pollution is observed for a period that may last from 12 days to almost a year. The body is usually removed from the home within a few hours. In most communities cremation is the final sacrament, and the eldest son usually performs these rites. In a few communities, and for people in certain stages of life (such as an infant or an ascetic), the body may be interred. Until the body is removed and the cremation fire is lit, no fire is to be lit or tended in the house where death occurred. Each religious community has its own list of scriptures from which to recite. These include portions of the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Two factors are important to note in discussing life-cycle rites. First, not all are pan-Hindu, and even those that are may have little importance in some communities. Second, many of the important rites, especially those that are celebrated for girls or women, may not be discussed in any classical text on dharma. This is possibly because many of the texts were written by men. Women were treated as the partners of males, who were the main focus of the books. It may also be that some of these rites emerged after these texts were written.

Many life-cycle rituals are called auspicious. The English word "auspiciousness" has been used as a shorthand term for a rather wide category of features in Hindu life. Auspicious times are chosen for the conduct of all sacraments; these times are in agreement with the person's horoscope.

A person's sacraments (samskaras; literally "perfecting") begin prenatally. Two of these, called pumsavana (seeking a male offspring) and simanta (hair parting), are followed by many communities in India. Although formerly performed in the fifth month of pregnancy, they are done much later now for the safe birth of a child, preferably a male. After childbirth a ceremony called jatakarma (birth ceremony) is performed. In earlier days this was supposed to be done before the umbilical cord was cut, but it is now done much later. The moment of birth is also noted, so that the exact horoscope of the child can be charted. Childhood sacraments include naming, the first feeding of solid food, tonsure or cutting of the child's hair, and piercing of the ears (which was historically done for both boys and girls but now only applies to girls). The beginning of education for a child is called vidya arambha (literally "the beginning of learning").

The ritual that initiates a young Brahman boy into the study of the Vedas is called upanayana or brahma upadesa. The word upanayana has two meanings; it may mean "acquiring the extra eye of knowledge" or "coming close to a teacher" to get knowledge. Brahma upadesa means receiving the sacred teaching (upadesa) concerning the supreme being (Brahman). The ritual of upanayana traditionally initiates a young boy at about age eight into the first stage of life, called brahmacarya. This word literally means "traveling on the path that will disclose the supreme being," that is, studenthood. The central part of the ritual is the imparting of the sacred teaching. As the boy sits with his father and the priest under a silk cloth (symbolizing the spiritual womb, according to some), a sacred mantra (sentence for chanting) is given to him. He is to repeat this mantra 108 times, 3 times a day. The mantra, known as the gayatri, is short: "I meditate on the brilliance of the sun; may it illumine my mind." In Vedic times, and possibly even well into the first millennium of this era, the young boy began his Vedic studies at this stage and went to live with his new teacher for several years. The ceremony is now conducted with considerable social overtones in many communities. Traditionally, male members of the upper three classes went through this ritual, but it is now performed mainly by the Brahmanic sections of the Hindu community.

The auspicious marriage is a way to fulfill obligations to society. According to the Dharma Sastra texts, a wife is a man's partner in fulfilling dharma, and without her a man cannot fully perform his religious obligations.

MEMBERSHIP

Hindu traditions have not sought to convert, nor have they actively proselytized. It has been widely debated whether a person has to be born a Hindu or whether it is possible to convert to the tradition. A widely held opinion is that a person may be initiated to specific traditions (sampradaya) such as ISKCON or the Sri Vaishnava faith within Hinduism, but the word "convert" is largely seen as an irrelevant concept. Because Hinduism is used as an umbrella category for hundreds of castes, communities, and traditions, a person cannot be a generic Hindu; a Hindu always has to be part of a group, whether he or she is born into it or not. Because there is no formal organization or institution for all Hindus (or even for most of them), the question of membership is problematic. Legally, however, it is important to know who a Hindu is because family law in India is different for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Zoroastrians. A Hindu, according to legal texts, is held to be anyone who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Zoroastrian and who is domiciled in the territories of India. Thus, at least for the purposes of the law, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs in India are considered to be Hindus, even though theologically, and sometimes socially, they are distinct groups.

There are also thousands of people around the world who adopt facets and selected practices of Hindu life, such as meditation, yoga, diet, and recitation of mantras. While those who are initiated into specific traditions such as ISKCON consider themselves part of the larger Hindu tradition, others may accept some features of Hindu life without necessarily having any formal affiliation with the tradition.

RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries religious leaders such as Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi emphasized the importance of tolerance in the Hindu tradition. For centuries, if not millennia, Hindus have lived with Buddhists, Jains, Parsis (also called Zoroastrians), Sikhs, Jews, Christians, and Muslims in relatively long periods of peace. Hindu rulers have funded and encouraged the building of monasteries and houses of worship for Buddhists in India and Southeast Asia; in India they endowed lands to Muslim saints as well as to Jain and Buddhist institutions. Because Hindus are the majority in post-independence India (after 1947), many of the minority traditions are given special privileges.

While religions in India have for the most part peacefully coexisted, historically there have been a few instances of tension between the Shaiva and Vaishnava traditions as well as between these groups and Jainism. There have also been both harmonious as well as extraordinarily acrimonious relationships between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia. Hundreds of Hindu temples in South Asia were destroyed for political, economic, and religious reasons. The real and perceived persecutions under Muslim rulers culminated in violence in 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned into the separate countries of India (with a Hindu majority) and Pakistan (with a Muslim majority). In the last few years of the twentieth century political parties with Hindu nationalist interests were perceived to be encouraging hostility toward minority religions. Unlike in colonial days, when the missionary activity of Christian churches in India was accepted, some Hindu groups now try to stem the strong evangelizing exercises.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Issues of social justice in Hinduism revolve around the caste system and the status of women. The caste system has been complex and different in the many regions of India. Power has been distributed in different ways across the community groups; in many areas there has been discrimination against those who do not fall within the traditional caste system. There are many communities that are collectively called "outcaste" in the Western world and that, in India, are now given the administrative labels of "scheduled caste" or "scheduled tribe." The names of these groups are part of a larger governmental program in India of granting not just equal opportunity but preference to those perceived as not having had the advantage of formal education in the last few centuries. Thus, many federal and state jobs as well as admissions to professional colleges and institutions of higher learning depend to a large extent on one's caste, and there are quotas and reservations exceeding 70 percent in some places for the "scheduled caste" applicants. The quota system has been controversial, especially for those who believe that they have been passed over in favor of those who are less qualified.

The status of women has largely depended on caste, economic class, age, and even piety. It is extremely difficult to make generalizations about the role of women in Hindu society. Androcentric (male-centered) texts have tended to disparage them, yet they had specific religious roles, and without them men could not perform their own duties. It has been a general rule that women in the so-called higher castes had less freedom than those in the so-called lower castes. Widows, especially, were discriminated against in the past, particularly in Brahmanic societies. Unlike many other religions, however, Hinduism has had varied resources that it has drawn upon for the advancement of women in society. Historically there have been powerful women—devotees, poets, patrons of arts, and philosophers—many of whom were known only regionally. These women have served as role models in the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.

Several groups in India are dedicated to various forms of social justice. One of the best-known movements was initiated by Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982). His movement focused on bhu daan (literally "gift of land") to the poor as a way of redistributing resources. Swami Agnivesh (born in 1939) has mobilized mass campaigns to fight bonded labor, child labor, and the ecological destruction of Third World countries. He attacks these problems primarily through the legal system as well as with direct activism and social work.

SOCIAL ASPECTS

Hinduism is not just a religion focusing on the individual's relationship to the divine but a network of social relationships and power. Elaborate kinship arrangements and connections are laid out in text and practice, and every family member has specific ritual functions to perform. The family is the center of most social, cultural, and religious events. Social divisions are part of a complex system of castes, communities, subcommunities, and linguistic groups. Among some higher castes, families may have a name called a gotra (literally a "cow-pen"), a word referring loosely to a clan. While a person is expected to marry within a subcommunity and caste, he or she must marry outside his or her gotra.

Throughout the history of the Hindu tradition some men have practiced polygamy, but since the passing of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955–56 monogamy has been the only legal option. Inheritance, succession, divorce, adoption, and other issues are all dealt with under codified Hindu family acts. There have been occasional instances of polyandry in Hindu narratives, and it was not uncommon in matrilineal states. Except for the matrilineal culture in the state of Kerala and a few other castes and tribes, Hindu traditions have largely been patriarchal and patrilineal.

Large extended families were common in India until the late twentieth century. Marriages were and still are arranged between men and women of the same caste, and marriage is seen not so much as a union of individuals but of families. While divorce has become increasingly accepted in many levels of society, it remains relatively rare.

In many Hindu communities a woman who is "auspicious" is honored and respected. Auspiciousness refers to prosperity in this life. It is seen in terms of wealth and progeny, along with the symbols and rituals connected with these. In the classical literature dealing with dharma, and in practice, it is auspicious to be married and to fulfill one's dharmic obligations. A sumangali—a married woman whose husband is alive—is the ideal woman with the ideal amount of auspiciousness, who can be a full partner in dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), and kama (sensual pleasure); through whom children are born; and through whom wealth and religious merit are accumulated. Only a married woman bears the title Srimati (meaning "the one with sri [auspiciousness]"). She is called griha-laksmi (the goddess Lakshmi of the house) and is the most honored woman in Hindu society, especially if she bears children.

The ethical issues surrounding reproductive technology are debated. Some of their basic logic may at first seem to run contrary to the smriti literature dealing with dharma. Books on dharma written about 2,000 years ago by Manu and others emphasized the importance of married couples having children. Many Hindus today accept advances in reproductive technology, such as artificial insemination, as a means of achieving this goal. Members of higher castes sometimes reject sperm banks as a source because they value the purity of their lineage. For similar reasons, adoption of an unknown child is not always acceptable for caste-conscious Hindus. The Hindu epics and the Puranas offer stories about supernatural means of conception and giving birth. Even though these tales, which legitimate the new reproductive technologies, are generally not invoked, the technologies seem to have been accepted easily.

CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

Abortion, homosexuality, and other issues that are controversial in the West are not often publicly spoken about in India. While the texts of dharma condemn abortion and encourage the birth of many children, laws permitting abortion passed in India without prolonged debate or any strong dissent from religious leaders. Many Hindus are not even aware of the pronouncements of the texts of dharma; the dharma texts simply have not had the compelling authority that religious law has had in some other religious traditions. Preference for male children in some parts of India has led to cases of female feticide (sex-selective abortion), which was made illegal in 1996.

Homosexuality is explicitly acknowledged only in some groups. Many middle-class families would not approve of it, but to a considerable extent it is not seen as a political embarrassment or liability for elected officials. Extramarital sex, on the other hand, is frowned upon if a married woman is involved; premarital sex with someone who does not become one's spouse may be extremely damaging to a woman and her family. As in many cases, the rules and mores of the Brahmanic and the so-called higher castes are more stringent than others.

Many traditional teachers argue against the authority of women and some so-called "lower castes" to recite the Vedas or conduct religious rituals. Despite these opinions, there are several movements that periodically bypass such Brahmanic values and simply initiate practices that may have been forbidden earlier. Thus, some groups train women to recite the Vedas, and in some families women may perform funeral rites that were forbidden to them; all these activities become woven into the social fabric without any chastisement or repercussions because there is no centralized authority to condemn such acts.

CULTURAL IMPACT

India's contribution to religion, culture, art, and science has been tremendous. Many of these fields have been framed in religious discourses; thus, healing, astronomy, and architecture are all presented as part of religion. Many of these concepts and practices, however, have spread to other cultures with-out the religious framework and have been adapted for local consumption.

Hindu philosophies had a major impact in many parts of the world from about the third century b.c.e. Many philosophies and practices traveled to East and Southeast Asia with Buddhism; others were spread to the western hemisphere by trade routes and through traffic with West Asia and Greece. Beginning in the eighteenth century, through colonial scholarship, many of the important Sanskrit texts were transmitted through translation to Europe and then to the United States. Thus, in the nineteenth century American Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau selectively took what they considered to be the best offerings of India and integrated texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Vishnu Purana into their writings. Entire passages from these texts, for instance, can be seen in Emerson's poems "Brahma" and "Hematreya."

With the arrival of Vivekananda (1863–1902) and other teachers in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, yoga and some Hindu forms of meditation became well known in the West. These were presented without connection to Indian cultures and were initially adapted as spiritual exercises. With the spread of counterculture movements in the 1960s, yoga became popular as a physical exercise, and today it is taught in practically every gym and physical education class in the United States and Canada. Its popularity is so overwhelming that most practitioners do not perceive it as being connected with Hindu culture.

Perhaps the greatest impact within India itself has come from the cumulative dance traditions; dance itself has been considered to be sacred. Although there are parts of dance traditions that have been continuous for several centuries, many of the formal classical dances that had fallen out of practice were reconstituted in the twentieth century by studying sculptures in temples. The revival of musical and dance forms along with the religious culture in which they are embedded has been a significant development in the late twentieth century. The performing arts, especially music and dance, have thrived in the diaspora, and they help transmit the stories of the epics, the Puranas, and the Iti-hasa (the stories of "thus it has been") to a new generation of Hindus.

Much of the cultural impact in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has occurred through learning from oral traditions and through selecting and adapting traditional thought and practices rather than from textual materials. In this regard Hinduism in the twenty-first century has been congruent with the traditions of two millennia ago.

In Java and Bali the many inscriptions in Hindu temples are evidence of the popularity of the epics, the Puranas, and the books on dharma. Parallels can be seen in origin stories, art, and architecture from particular parts of India (such as Kanchipuram and Kalinga) and Cambodia. While one can certainly speak of the "Indianization" of Southeast Asia, it is important to realize that stories and practices significant in India were not all transferred in the same hierarchical order to other places. For example, stories relatively minor in the Hindu tradition in India became extremely significant in Cambodia.

Vasudha Narayanan

See Also Vol. 1: Shaivism, Vaishnavism

Bibliography

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Baird, Robert. Religion and Law in Independent India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1993.

Bhagavata Purana. Translated by Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1978.

Bose, Mandakranta, ed. Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Bryant, Edwin, and Maria Eckstrand. The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Caraka Samhita. Translated by A. Chandra Kaviratna and P. Sharma. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1996.

Carman, John, and Frederique Marglin. Purity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985.

Chapple, Christopher Key, and Mary E. Tucker. Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Dehejia, Vidya. Royal Patrons and Great Temple Art. Bombay: Marg, 1988.

Eck, Diana. Darsan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

Hawley, John Stratton. Devi: Goddesses of India. University of California Press, 1996.

Hawley, John Stratton, and Mark Juergensmeyer. Songs of the Saints of India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Hess, Linda, and Shukdev Singh. The Bijak of Kabir. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986.

Jackson, William J. Tyagaraja, Life and Lyrics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Jacques, Claude. Angkor: Cities and Temples. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

Kane, Panduranga Vamana. History of Dharmasastra. Poona, India: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1968–74.

Lutgendorf, Philip. The Life of a Text. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Narayan, R.K. The Mahabharata. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

——. The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.

Narayanan, Vasudha. The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 1994.

Nelson, Lance. Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Law Code of Manu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

——, trans. and ed. Dharmasutras: The Law Codes of Ancient India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Orr, Leslie C. Donors, Devotees, and the Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Patton, Laurie, ed. Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Ramanujan, A.K. Hymns for the Drowning. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

——. Speaking of Siva. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1979.

Richman, Paula. Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Sivaramamurti, C. Nataraja in Art, Thought and Literature. New Delhi: National Museum, 1974.

Williams, Raymond Brady, ed. A Sacred Thread: Modern Transmission of Hindu Traditions in India and Abroad. Chambersburg, Penn.: Anima, 1992.

Wilson, H.H. The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition. 3rd ed. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1961.

Hinduism

views updated Jun 27 2018

Hinduism

SCRIPTURES AND RITUALS

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

ANCIENT CHALLENGES

THE TRANSMISSION OF HINDUISM

HINDU SCIENCE

WHO IS A HINDU?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hinduism embraces a great diversity of beliefs and forms of worship, and it has therefore been called a family of religions rather than one religion. Hindus form the majority population of India (approximately 82% of Indias 1.25 billion people). About 45 million Hindus live outside of India, mostly in the neighboring countries of Nepal (where Hinduism is the state religion), Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. About 2.5 million Hindus live in North America, where they have established dozens of temples.

British authors in the early nineteenth century coined the term Hinduism by adding -ism to the word Hindu, which had been used by the Ancient Persians to identify the inhabitants of the land beyond the Indus River. Hindus themselves had called their tradition Vaidika dharma (the Vedic Dispensation) or Sanātana dharma (the Eternal Law). The Vedic civilization arose in northwestern India around 4000 BCE, and the Indus civilization (c. 25001900 BCE) may have been part of it. When the settlements had to be abandoned around 2000 BCE, due to a major climate change, most moved east into the Yamunā-Ganges Doab, which became the new home of Vedic civilization, with Mathurā (on the Yamunā) and Vārāņasī (on the Ganges) as main cultural centers.

Hinduism is closely tied to the land, and the Mātrī-bhūmī (Motherland) has a unique emotional appeal for Hindus. The physical features of the country are associated with Hindu gods and goddesses and with Hindu religious practices and eschatological expectations. The great rivers of India are not only important bodies of water; they are also sources of inspiration and ritual purification, as well as divinities to be worshipped. Many towns and cities along their banks are places where pilgrims congregate to obtain supernatural blessings. In addition, mountains such as the Himālayas, the Vindhyas, the Ghats, and the Nilgiri Hills are the abodes of gods. Hundreds of thousands of temples, small and large, embellish Indias landscape, visibly transforming the country into the Hindu Holy Land.

SCRIPTURES AND RITUALS

Hindu scriptures have come down through the ages in two major streams: the Vedas and the Āgamas. The Vedas are the literature of the religious professionals, to be memorized and recited only by Brahmins. They comprise the four Samhitās (collections of hymns) and a large number of Brāhmaṇas (ritual texts), Āraṇyakas (forest treatises), and Upaniṣads (mystical writings). The Āgamas are the sacred literature of the people at large. The Great Epics, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, are also important sources of Hindu religion.

Many Hindus consider the Bhagavadgîtā, a section of the Mahābhārata, an epitome of their religion. The Purāṇas, bible-like compendia of Hindu lore, are widely read by Hindus from all classes. Numerous texts are considered to be revealed scriptures by the followers of specific worship traditions. They contain creation narratives, moral teachings, worship rituals, genealogies of kings and patriarchs, myths of gods and goddesses, edifying stories, and eschatological lore. Based on these texts, poets and playwrights such as Kālidāsa and Bāna (fifth or sixth century CE) produced dramatic literature of a high order in Sanskrit. Poet-saints such as Tulasīdāsa and Kamban (sixteenth century CE) created popular vernacular versions of the classics that continue to be performed, while countless Bollywood films take their stories from these books.

The language of the most ancient literary documents of Hinduism, Vedic is an archaic form of Sanskrit, the refined language, standardized around 600 BCE by Pānini. Sanskrit was called Deva-vāni, or the language of the gods. It became the language of Hindu scholarship and classical poetry as well as Hindu religious literature. All modern North Indian vernaculars are largely derived from Sanskrit.

Domestic and public rituals were a prominent feature of early Vedic culture and were considered indispensable for the well-being of individuals and society. In their performance, hundreds of intricate and interrelated rules had to be observed. The construction of the altars demanded the solution of difficult arithmetic and geometric problems, and the timing of sacrifices was based on precise astronomical observations. The change of seasons was accompanied by rituals, as were the various life stages. Public offerings ensured the fertility of fields and domestic animals, while home rituals accompanied birth, adolescence, marriage, and death. In later centuries pūjā, the worship of great gods like Visnu and Śiva, became the predominant form of religion. But the performance of Vedic rituals continues to this very day. For example, Brahmins still recite Vedic hymns at upanayaṇa (initiation), vivāha (marriage), and antyṣṭi (last rites). Many Hindus participate in daily temple worship and partake of consecrated food (prasāda), and the major temple festivals are great public events for every village and town. Domestic rituals, such as offering food to the deity or waving lights before the image of the deity, are also still widespread in India.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Traditional Hindu society functioned on the assumption that humans are not born equal and that their birth in different varṇas (classes) defines their specific rights and duties. According to the Puruṣa Sūkta, the Vedic creation myth, Brahmins, born from the Great Beings mouth, were the custodians of the Veda, the highest in rank. Kṣatriyas (or Kshatriyas), born from its chest, were rulers and warriors. Vaiśyas (Vaisyas), born from its bellybusinesspeople, artisans, farmers and clerkshad to provide the necessities of life for society at large. Śūdras (Sudras), originating from its feet, were to serve the upper three varṇas. The three higher varṇas alone were entitled to receive the saṃskāras (sacraments) that made them dvi-jātis (twice-born). Ati-śūdras (Ati-sudras), the people below the Śūdras (also called Asprihyas or untouchables) were outside the pale of Hindu society proper. They were relegated to doing work that was considered ritually polluting, such as skinning carcasses, cleaning latrines, and disposing of the dead. They were not allowed to dwell in the village proper and were not entitled to using amenities reserved for caste people. Each of the four varṇas consists of hundreds of jātis (birth lines, or subcastes) that also observe ranking among themselves.

Duties also varied with respect to stages in life. A twice-born male was to spend the first twelve years after initiation with a reputable teacher (brahmacarya). He then had to marry and to procreate children. After the children had grown up he was to live as a forest-dweller in a life of simplicity and meditation. Finally he was to enter the stage of renunciation, and as a homeless pilgrim he was to visit holy places until death relieved him of the burden of his body. While this schema was never literally carried out on a large scale, it provided a value orientation that was widely respected.

Early in their history, Hindus developed principles of theory and practice of government (rajya-dharma). The Mahābhārata devotes long sections to this, and the Kautilîya Arthaśāstra, ascribed to the prime minister of Chandragupta Maurya (321293 BCE), provides a detailed description of a well-ordered professional administration. One of the aims of the Hindu jāgaran (awakening) that began in the early twentieth century was to reestablish India as a Hindu nation. The Hindū Mahāsabhā, the first modern Hindu political party, was founded in 1909. It maintained that Hindus have a right to live in peace as Hindus, to legislate, to rule themselves in accordance with Hindu genius and ideals and establish by all lawful and legal means a Hindu State, based on Hindu culture and tradition, so that Hindu ideology and way of life would have a homeland of its own (Pattabhiram, p. 217). Vir Savarkar, one of its main ideologues, strove to unify Hindu-India under the banner of Hindutva, a cultural Hindu identity. In 1926, K. V. Hedgewar founded the Rāṣṭrīya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in order to counteract Muslim influence in Indian politics. The RSS leader M. S. Golwalkar was instrumental in creating the Viśva Hindū Pariṣad in 1964, which aims at unifying all Hindus across the different denominations. It vigorously promotes and defends Hindu interests both within India and abroad.

ANCIENT CHALLENGES

In the sixth century BCE, movements arose in India that challenged the necessity of rituals (especially the animal sacrifices) and the mediating function of Brahmins. Among the breakaway factions that survived the centuries are Jainism and Buddhism. Jîna Mahāvîra, the last reformer of a more ancient religion, declared ahiṃsā (nonkilling) to be the highest moral principle. Gautama Buddha, the latest of a long series of Enlightened ones, taught that ethical perfection, rather than birth, made a person a Brahmin. For several centuries the traditions based on the teachings of these sages, Jainism and Buddhism, respectively, were the majority religions in India. Under the Imperial Guptas (320540 CE), the Brahmins launched a major campaign to lure people back to Hindu rituals. They built temples and encouraged the composition of popular religious books. After the disintegration of the Gupta Empire, many smaller kingdoms arose in various parts of India. Hindu culture also reached out to Southeast Asia as far as the Philippines, and the languages and arts of Southeast Asia still show a strong Indian influence. From the twelfth century onward, most of India came under the rule of Muslim invaders, who destroyed many Hindu temples and built mosques on their sites. These actions are still the cause of much friction between Hindus and Muslims today.

THE TRANSMISSION OF HINDUISM

Vedic religion was family based. Specific branches (śākhas) of the Veda were preserved in individual families, who held hereditary offices in public rituals. The home was also a center for religious practices, and the sacred hearth-fire was not allowed to die out. Families were responsible for the life-cycle rituals, and husband and wife together had to perform the domestic rituals. Young boys moved into the families of gurus to be taught. The role of the guru reached great prominence when specific worship communities developed under the leadership of charismatic personalities, who often claimed to be the embodiment of a deity. These ācāryas (Masters) shaped mainstream Hinduism and still exercise great influence on Hindus at large, regulating the lives of their followers and reinterpreting scriptures and traditional teachings.

Pluralism was a hallmark of Hindu religion from its very beginning. Many gods and goddesses are invoked in Vedic hymns, and Hindus continue to worship a great variety of deities in their temples. There is no common creed to which all Hindus subscribe, nor is there a single doctrine or practice that is followed by all Hindus, except perhaps the nominal acceptance of the Veda as a revealed scripture and the belief in karma and rebirth. It is natural for Hindus with an inquiring mind to analyze and investigate the teachings of their traditions, and professional philosophers with a Hindu background also deal with religious issues in a philosophically meaningful way. Hindu philosophical systems (darśanas) are not mere abstract constructs, they are also paths for the realization of the highest purpose of life (sādhanas). Among the qualifications required for beginning philosophical study is the earnest desire to find liberation from the sufferings of the cycle of rebirths (samsāra), caused by ignorance concerning the true nature of reality.

Education was always a high priority for Hindus: the early life of Brahmins was devoted to study, and continued private study (svādhayāya) was one of their lifelong obligations. In addition to the private, tutorial-like teaching from guru to disciple, imparted in the gurus home, schools were attached to ashrams and temples from early on. The well-organized, ancient Indian universities, which were publicly as well as privately sponsored, taught not only the Veda, but also the eighteen sciences, later supplemented by the sixty-four arts. The basic curriculum included linguistics, arts and crafts, medicine, logic and spirituality. High ethical standards were expected both from students and teachers. The most famous of these universities were Takṣaśīlā in the Punjab, and Nālandā and Mithilā in Bihar.

Hindus believe in a balance of values, expressed in the four aims of life (puruṣārthas): the acquisition of wealth (artha), the enjoyment of life (kāma), the practice of morality (dharma), and the search for final emancipation (mokṣa).

HINDU SCIENCE

The central ritual of Vedic culture was performed at astronomically fixed times on altars built with specifically produced bricks arranged in a prescribed geometric pattern. The altar was conceived as a symbol of the human body as well as of the universe: the 360 bricks of an altar represented the 360 days of the year and the 360 bones in the human body. The building of altars in different configurations, and their change in shape and volume, involved a sophisticated geometry. The Śulva-sūtras provided the rules for constructing a variety of shapes of altars and their permutations. Astronomical knowledge of a fairly high order was required to determine the right time for the performance of Vedic sacrifices. One of the auxiliary Vedic sciences, the Jyotiṣa, explains how to determine the positions of the sun and moon at solstices, and of the new and full moon in the circle of the twenty-seven nakṣatras. Geometry and other fields of Indian mathematics developed out of the requirements for the Vedic sacrifice. Algebra, in spite of its Arabic name, is an Indian invention, as are the concept of zero, the decimal system, and Arabic numerals.

The Atharvaveda contains invocations relating to bodily and mental diseases. Its auxiliary Āyurveda, (life-science) was mainly oriented toward preventing diseases and healing through herbal remedies. Good health was not only considered generally desirable, it was viewed as a precondition for reaching spiritual fulfillment. Medicine as a charity was widely recommended and supported by Hindu rulers. Two Indian medical handbooks, the Cāraka-saṃhitā and the Suśruta-saṃhitā, were the result of centuries of development and became famous in the ancient world far beyond India. Āyurveda was also applied to animals and plants, and there is an ancient handbook for professional gardeners and a text for cattle veterinarians. Other works deal with veterinary medicine relating to horses and elephants. Ancient India had both hospitals and animal clinics, and Gośālas, places in which elderly cattle are provided for, are still popular in some parts of India. Āyurveda was the source of much of ancient Greek and Roman, as well as mediaeval Arabic medical knowledge. In modern times, Ayurvedic pharmacology has become recognized by major Western pharmaceutical companies and researchers.

In connection with the building of temples, Hindus developed a great architectural tradition. No village or city was deemed inhabitable without a temple. Professional handbooks like the Manasāra and the Mayamata provide artistic and religious canons for the architects and sculptors.

Adhyātma-vidyā, the science relating to Brahman, the Supreme Reality, was considered the highest branch of science. It rested on personal experience, a coherent episte-mology, and the exegesis of revealed utterances. The ideas of the Upanishads were further developed into the systematic of Vedānta philosophy, mainly laid down in numerous commentaries on the Brahma-sútras ascribed to Bādarāyaṇa (second century BCE). Beginning with Śaākara (eighth century CE), through Rāmānuja (eleventh century) to Madhva (thirteenth century), the greatest minds of India have endeavored to cultivate the science of the eternal spirit.

WHO IS A HINDU?

For many centuries, membership in the Hindu community was restricted to those who were born from Hindu parents and who had undergone the various prescribed rituals that made a Hindu a full member of the Hindu community. But even in ancient times, many foreigners who came to India adopted Hindu thought and culture. With the establishment of British rule in India and the advent of Christian missionaries, the interest of Hindus in spreading their religion abroad was awakened. Swami Vivekanandas much celebrated presentations at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, and his subsequent journey through the United States and England, resulted in the establishment of Vedanta Centers. Mahatma Gandhi, who led the Indian independence movement to success on the basis of the Hindu ideal of nonviolence, did much to gain worldwide respect for Hinduism. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the president of India from 1962 to 1967, became the voice of the twentieth-century Hindu intelligentsia, representing Hinduism as the most advanced form of universal spirituality. The numerous Hindu swamis and gurus who came to the West beginning in the 1960s familiarized thousands with sectarian Hinduism and attracted many Westerners to joining Hindu religious communities. In the twenty-first century, many Hindu authorities have given up their reservations and freely accept Western converts to Hinduism.

SEE ALSO Buddhism; Caste; Caste, Anthropology of; Jainism; Religion; Sikhism

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Flood, Gavin, ed. 2003. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Klostermaier, Klaus. 1998. A Concise Encyclopaedia of Hinduism. Oxford: Oneworld.

Klostermaier, Klaus. 2000. Hinduism: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oneworld.

Klostermaier, Klaus. 2007. A Survey of Hinduism. 3rd ed. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Mittal, Sushil, and Gene Thursby, eds. 2004. The Hindu World. New York: Routledge.

Pattabhiram, Mohan, ed. 1967. General Elections in India 1967. Bombay: Allied Publishers.

Sharma, Arvind, ed. 2003. The Study of Hinduism. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

Klaus K. Klostermaier

Hinduism

views updated Jun 11 2018

HINDUISM.

Hinduism, the religion of nearly one billion people mostly of South Asian provenance or descent, is notoriously difficult to define or even to describe with accuracy and comprehensiveness. Like all complex and ancient religious traditions, it is problematic to speak about Hinduism as if it were one monolithic religion rather than merely a label for many different traditions. The conglomeration of religious traditions sheltered under this umbrella incorporates a bewildering array of texts, beliefs, practices, and sectsso disparate a collection that some modern scholars have questioned the legitimacy of artificially unifying them. According to these scholars, one cannot really speak about a single Hinduism but at best only a variety of Hinduisms.

Defining Hinduism

The word Hinduism itself derives from one of the principal rivers of South Asia, the Indus, and was probably first used by the ancient Persians to designate the people and territory of the northwestern portion of the subcontinent. As a name for a religion (at first inclusive of what is now differentiated as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism), it probably owes its origin to the Muslim invaders of the early part of the second millennium c.e., and as a discrete (but still enormously variegated) Indian religion, Hinduism was the term the British gave in the nineteenth century to all those in India who were neither Muslim nor Christian.

Diversityhistorical, cultural, linguistic, doctrinal, and sectarianis descriptive of all world religions also designated by a unitary label, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. Hinduism may be an extreme example, but it is hardly unique in this regard. And as is true in other religions, in Hinduism conceptual unity can be identified within this diversity. Some scholars have identified a set of key concepts or beliefs they regard as distinctively Hindu, including the beliefs in karma and rebirth; the impermanent and fundamentally suffering nature of the world (samsara); and the possibility of liberation from suffering and rebirth and the attainment of a permanent state of bliss (moksha ). None of these beliefs, however, belongs exclusively to Hinduism. Buddhism, Jainism, and other "non-Hindu" Indian religions also hold these doctrines. Other observers content themselves with the notion that Hinduism is distinguished by religious methods and practices that may be categorized under three broad headings or paths: the way of action or ritual (karma marga ), the way of knowledge or wisdom (jnana marga ), and of devotion (bhakti marga ).

Still others argue that what is truly distinctive of Hinduism is its social structurethe caste systemand the religious ideology that underlies it, especially the notion of the superiority and spiritual purity of the Brahman castes. Indeed, some scholars use the term Brahmanism (or Brahminism ) as synonymous with Hinduism to emphasize the notion that the essence of this religion is its belief in caste hierarchy, with the Brahmans at the top. But although it is true that caste and Brahman privilege are ancient and enduring features of Indian society, it is not clear that a religion is defined by the social structure it promotes, nor is caste confined to "Hinduism"there are Muslim, Christian, Sikh, and Parsi castes as well as Hindu ones.

Perhaps the most promising way to envision the underlying unity of Hinduism is to concentrate on the way Hindu traditions understand and use scriptural authority to legitimate a variegated set of beliefs and practices. Hinduism can thus be understood as a unified and continuous religious tradition in terms of the particular sources and strategies used to establish, legitimate, and maintain its religious authority. The most common way Hindus of various sorts do this is to appeal to the authority of the Veda, the most ancient and most universally acknowledged of Hinduism's sacred texts. Hinduism, then, might be envisaged as the label for those traditions that legitimate themselves through the authority of the Veda. Traditions that deny the sacrality and authority of the Veda and posit alternative sources of such authority (those traditions called Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, and so on) are, for this reason, not Hindu. Although the subject matter of the Vedic texts is not always, or even usually, of importance to any given Hindu sect or tradition, the legitimating authority of the Veda has been one, and perhaps the only, mark of orthodoxy in the long history of this complex group of Indic traditions.

Hinduism has had an incalculable impact on Indian society. Indeed, some modern religious nationalists in India would argue that Indian and Hindu culture and history are synonymous, although this turns a blind eye to the enormous contribution of Muslims and others who are, under virtually any definition, not Hindus. Nevertheless, in virtually all areas of Indian society and culture, including social structure, art, music, architecture, literature, and government, Hinduism has left its imprint, such that India cannot really be understood without some understanding of its majority religion.

Historical Overview

Most scholars trace the earliest origins of Hinduism to two different sources. The first of these is the Indus Valley civilization, which dates back to the third millennium b.c.e. and reaches its high point around 2000 b.c.e. The characteristics of this civilization remain somewhat elusive, since the inscriptions on the artifacts that have been recovered remain undeciphered. Nevertheless, on the basis of both large-scale and small-scale remains, scholars have postulated that certain features of later Hinduism may have their earliest foundations and expressions in the Indus Valley civilization. These features include the emphasis on ritual purity, the worship of a goddess figure connected to fertility, and the sacrality of certain animals and trees. The most famous of the depictions found on seals dug up at the various archeological sites is what has been called proto-Shiva. A horned figure, surrounded by animals and sitting in what appears to be a yogic position with an erect phallus, seems to indicate a possible connection to the later Hindu deity who is similarly conceptualized and symbolically represented.

The second root of Hinduism is the Aryans or Indo-Europeans who, it is thought, began to enter the Indic sub-continent from the northwest in several migratory waves beginning sometime in the second millennium b.c.e. The South Asian branch of the far-flung Indo-European peoples is associated with the Vedic period of Indian history. Named after the texts called the Vedas (or, collectively, the Veda), which are written in Sanskrit, this historical epoch is known to us almost entirely on the basis of those ancient texts. The Vedas depict a religion entirely oriented to the performance of and philosophical speculations concerning fire sacrifice. Sacrifices, or yajna s, were offered to the pantheon of deities located in one or another of the three worlds of sky, atmosphere, and earth; some of the gods of the later Hindu pantheon were already worshipped in the Vedic era. Sacrifices to the gods were performed with oblations of cakes made of grain but also with animals (goats, rams, bulls, stallions, and, at least theoretically, human males) and with the apparently intoxicating juices from the plant known as soma.

The basic assumption of the Vedic sacrifice was that if the gods were pleased through such offerings, the cosmos would be put into order and beneficial results would be procured by the sacrificer. These results included prosperity of all sorts, worldly success and fame, long life, and a place in heaven after death. As time went on, it seems as though the sacrifice took on power of its own, apart from the will and favor of the gods. If the ritual was performed correctly by the Brahman priests, who knew all the rules of the sacrifice, results would occur automatically.

Also over time, an increasing emphasis seems to have been put not only on the simple performance of the ritual but also on mystical knowledge of the hidden meanings of or connections between the sacrifice, the cosmos, and the individual. These speculations reached their apogee in the middle centuries of the first millennium b.c.e. as is recorded in the texts known as the Upanishads. Mystical knowledge or wisdom (jnana ) in these texts supersedes ritual action (karma) as the way to attain the highest goal, now conceived of not as a place in heaven but rather as the realization of one's true nature, expressed in the equation between one's true self (atman ) and the underlying cosmic unity (brahman ).

The Upanishads are also associated with a world-renunciatory movement of the middle centuries of the first millennium b.c.e. that also brought Buddhism and Jainism into being. For the renouncers, ascetics, and mystics of this period, the Vedic sacrifice was regarded as, at best, of lesser importance than practices associated with self-discipline, meditation, yoga, and renunciation of ritual and worldly pursuits. Action, or karma, especially when motivated by desire, was seen as problematic in that it was supposed to result in repeated, and potentially endless, rebirth. The world was seen as a place of suffering and imprisonment, and a new goal, release from this wheel of birth, death, and rebirth, was posited.

As a result both of challenges within the tradition (the world-renouncing strains that were manifest in the Upanishads) and without (the heterodox traditions of Buddhism, Jainism, and other new religions), Hinduism was reformulated. Texts dating to around 400 b.c.e. and those produced subsequently over the course of several centuries reflect characteristic and definitive shifts in the religion. Among these was a sense of orthodoxy, which can be seen both in the way the Vedas were now understood as revealed, or shruti, and in the religio-social importance given to caste and the hierarchically superior place of the Brahmans. Especially important was the concept of dharma, or religious duty, and the reinstatement of religious value to worldly life. From this time on, Hinduism has harbored within itself both an emphasis on doing one's duty in the world and the importance of renouncing the world.

By the early centuries of the first millennium c.e. can be seen the earliest manifestations of another development within the increasingly variegated mix of traditions collectively called Hinduism. This was the rise of a new form of theistic religion called the bhakti movement, which brought with it the rise to supreme importance of the major deities of the Hindu pantheon, especially Vishnu (in all his incarnations, including Krishna and Rama), Shiva, and the various forms of the Goddess. The first temples where such deities were worshipped date to this period, as do Sanskrit and Tamil texts that center on one or another of these principal divinities. From this time forth, in addition to the notion (dating to the Upanishads) that the divine is "without qualities" (nirguna ), one finds within Hinduism the conceptualization of God "with qualities" (saguna ) and the representation of the divine in the form of images.

Dating also to this period is another widespread and influential movement that would add yet another ingredient to Hinduism. This movement, itself varied in its beliefs and practices, has been called Tantrism. Originating perhaps in the peripheral areas of northwest and northeast India, Tantric ideas and practices probably date to the fifth century c.e. or before, although most of the texts in which the distinctive doctrines of this strain within Hinduism appear are several centuries later. With an emphasis on radical and unconventional methods (including, in some cases, ritual sex) for attaining liberation in the present lifetime, and with an array of deitiesalmost always including a goddess figureoften depicted in quite horrific forms, the Tantric movement was always esoteric and controversial. Nevertheless, by the medieval period and in subsequent centuries Tantrism influenced all forms of Hinduism. It has been noted that the pantheon of present-day Hinduism is largely made up of Tantric deities. Tantrism also left its imprint on the temples, iconography, and rituals of the more mainstream Hinduism.

The mainstreamby which is usually meant the elite, Sanskritic tradition of orthodox or Brahmanic Hinduismwas philosophically systematized beginning in the early centuries of the first millennium c.e. into six schools. Perhaps the most influential of these is Vedanta and its greatest teacher was Shankara (c. 800 c.e.). Based on a particular reading of the earliest Upanishads, the Vedanta philosophy in all its forms (and there are several) argues for some version of monism and regards the phenomenal world of experience as fundamentally illusory. The philosophical schools of Yoga and Samkhya, by way of contrast, envision a kind of dualism between matter and spirit and see the goal of the religious quest as the isolation of the pure spirit. Other and less influential of the philosophical schools emphasize analysis of Vedic ritual and ritual speech (Mimamsa), logic and methods of argumentation (Nyaya), and a theory of atomism (Vaisheshika).

The second millennium c.e. saw the further development of bhakti, or devotional, forms of Hinduism, especially among poet-saints, who composed often ecstatic songs and poems in the vernacular languages of India. These poet-saints sometimes included women and members of the lower castes, and in general the devotional movement became more and more the religion of the Hindu masses. As Muslim influence and eventually rule was established in north India, syncretistic devotional figures and groups emerged. The bhakti of a saint like Kabir (14401518), for example, was heavily influenced by Islamic monotheism, iconoclasm, and other concepts.

The European impact on Hinduism came primarily in the form of British imperialism and colonialism. Modern Hinduism, especially as it is conceptualized by the educated elite of India, was shaped by the interactions and dialectical relations between outside influences and rising nationalist aspirations. Nineteenth-century reformers such as Rammohan Roy, Dayananda Sarasvati, and Vivekananda created what has sometimes been called Neo-Hinduism in an effort to modernize and respond to the challenges of Western colonialism while retaining pride in the traditions of ancient Hinduism. The reforming impulse put into motion by these leaders and others has also sometimes been labeled the back-to-the-Vedas movement because of its emphasis on returning to the ancient past's purity to validate innovations such as rights for women, opposition to image worship, and caste reform.

In the twentieth century, two different and contrasting influences have exerted influence on the shape of Hinduism. On the one hand, Mohandas Gandhi (18691948; the Mahatma, or Great Soul) put forward an inclusive, tolerant Hinduism that picked up one strand of the ancient past: the non-violence and self-control of the world-renouncers. On the other hand, the twentieth century also saw the rise of an often militant form of Hindu nationalism that emphasized an exclusivist Hinduism and valorized powerful Hindu kings of the past and divine ruler-warriors like the god Rama.

Sacred Texts and Sects

The Veda are earliest texts of Hinduism. Written in Sanskrit and for millennia preserved only orally, the oldest portion of the Vedathe Rig Veda, composed about 1200 b.c.e. or beforeis also among the oldest known texts of the Indo-European world.

The Vedas are entirely centered on the performance of and speculations surrounding the ancient religion of the Aryans in India, the cult of fire sacrifice. Each of the four Vedasthe Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharvaconsists of a Samhita (collection of hymns, verses, and chants), a Brahmana (in which the mythical origins, contexts, and meanings of the ritual are explained), an Aranyaka (a forest text, where the more esoteric and secret significances of the rites are detailed), and an Upanishad (comprised of mystical speculations and philosophical ruminations). The Samhitas of the four Vedas are correlated to the functions of the four main priests of the Vedic sacrifice and were composed and preserved by these priests for ritual use. Each of the four Vedas has several recensions due to the varying practices of different ritual schools; some of these recensions have survivedcompletely or in fragmentsand many have not.

The Veda is traditionally thought to be unauthored (either by a god or humans); rather, it is believed to exist eternally in the form of sound. Ancient sages are said to have heard it (or part of it) and then recited it to others. The Veda was, and continues to be, memorized syllable by syllable and transmitted orally by means of an intricate method of recitation. Although ancient India had a writing system by the middle of the first millennium b.c.e., it was only in relatively recent times that the oral Veda was written down.

Hinduism traditionally accorded the Vedic texts the status of revelation, or shruti. All the other sacred texts of Hinduism, no matter the esteem in which they are held by their adherents, are technically classified not as revelation but only as traditional or remembered (smriti ). The smriti texts are admittedly authored by great teachers of the past.

The earliest of the traditional texts are collectively known as the Vedangas or limbs of the Veda. Composed mainly from about 700 b.c.e. to about 200 c.e., these works were technical treatises written in the shorthand, aphoristic form called the sutra. The Vedangas make up the six sciences necessary for the correct and exact performance of the Vedic rituals: vyakarana (the study of grammar, linguistics, and philology); nirukta (etymology); chanda (the explanation and practice of verse meters); shiksha (the study of faultless pronunciation); and jyotisha (the science of astronomy and astrology). The sixth limb of the Veda is the Kalpa Sutras, manuals in which the rules for performing the various types of Vedic sacrifice are given. The Shrauta Sutras lay out the rules for performing the most elaborate of these sacrifices, and the Grhya Sutras detail the protocol for executing the simpler rites of the domestic ceremonial performed by the householder himself. Also included are the Shulba Sutras, in which geometrical rules are laid out for the proper construction of the sacred space and altars of the Vedic ritual.

The last component of a Kalpa Sutra (and again, different versions of these texts were composed and preserved by a variety of ritual schools) is the Dharma Sutra (also known as the Dharma Shastra, or Teaching, or the Dharma Smriti). These encyclopedic texts extend the rules governing human activity, which were previously confined to the ritual sphere, to nearly every aspect of daily life, and especially concentrate on the specific obligations or duties (dharma ) one has as a member of a particular social class or caste at various stages of life.

The sutra form was also favored by the authors of several other important texts. The Mimamsa Sutras, attributed to Jaimini and dated at about 200 b.c.e., is the root text of the philosophical school of Mimamsa, or enquiry into the cosmic and moral significance of the Vedic sacrifice. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (c. 200300 c.e.) are the first systematic presentation of the practice and theory of yoga, or psycho-physical discipline. And the Vedanta Sutras of the great teacher Shankara (c. early ninth century c.e.), which are actually commentaries on an earlier text, form the most important enunciation of the highly influential Hindu philosophical tradition known as Advaita Vedanta, which teaches an absolute monistic doctrine of the oneness of all being.

Among the most popular and best-known of the Hindu scriptures are the two great epics The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. Both of these enormous works (The Mahabharatais a collection of over 100,000 stanzas and The Ramayana is about one-fourth of that) were composed, in various recensions, over a period of almost a thousand years between approximately 400 b.c.e. and approximately 400 c.e. Both consist of a heterogeneous assortment of materialmythology, pseudo-historical lore, folktales, teachings concerning religious duty, the meaning of life, and salvationbut both also relate narratives that have come to be regarded as the backbone of the Indian cultural heritage.

The Mahabharata claims to be divinely inspired and all-encompassing. The text tells the story of a legendary battle for rule over India fought between two sides of the same family. After many twists and turns in the plot, the warring parties meet at the battlefield for the climactic battle. It is at this point in the story that perhaps the single most popular Hindu text and one of the world's greatest religious works is found. The Bhagavad Gita, or Song of the Lord, is a discussion of duty and faith conducted by one of the warriors, Arjuna, and his charioteer, Krishnawho is, the reader learns in the course of the text, God in human form.

The Ramayana, attributed to the seer Valmiki, is the story of Rama, the Prince of Ayodhya: his birth and childhood, his marriage to Sita, his unjust banishment and exile into the wilderness, Sita's abduction by the wicked Ravana, Rama's battle with and defeat of Ravana and his rescue of Sita, and Rama's triumphant return to Ayodhya as king. Whereas the characters in The Mahabharata tend to be flawed in various ways, Rama and Sita are widely regarded as ideals of obedience, loyalty, fidelity, strength, courage, and heroism. Both of the great Hindu epics were traditionally recited by bards at the courts of kings but were also often recited or dramatically enacted for the masses as religious performance and popular entertainment. Both have also been made into television serials and videotapes, thus metamorphosing into a somewhat different kind of sacred text.

Beginning in the early middle centuries of the Common Era, Sanskrit texts that codified the worldviews, doctrines, and practices of the various Hindu theistic sects were composed. Chief among these are the Puranas (Stories of antiquity). Centering on one or another of the principal deities of sectarian HinduismVishnu, Shiva, or the Goddessthese texts are traditionally said to comprise five topics: the creation of the world, the dissolution of the world, the ages of the world, genealogies, and the history of dynasties. In actuality, however, the Puranas are as encyclopedic as the epics, replete with all sorts of myths, legends, didactic passages on religious duty and salvation, ritual instructions for temple and image worship, and tales about holy places and pilgrimage sites. Early-twenty-first-century scholarship has indicated that most, if not all, of the Puranas were composed under the auspices of one or another ruler of particular Hindu kingdoms by priests associated with the dominant sect of the region.

Other sectarian texts are known by different names. The 108 sacred texts of the Vaishnava sect known as the Pancaratras are designated Samhitas (collection of hymns, verses, and chants) or Agamas; certain sects worshipping the god Shiva have also produced texts called Agamas; and sects worshipping one or another form of the goddess have composed Tantrassectarian treatises that are similar in content and purpose to the Puranas but tend to be more purely theological in their orientation and to specify ritual practices to be followed in the temple and at home.

Whereas all the literature discussed above is in Sanskrit, the sacred texts of what might be called popular Hinduism were composed in one or another of the vernacular languages of South Asia. Among the most important of these are the Tamil works of the poet-saints who served as figureheads for the devotional, and often ecstatic and emotional, movements that began in South India as early as the seventh century c.e. Led by the devotees of Vishnu known as the Alvars and the worshippers of Shiva called the Nayanmars, the devotional movement became popular and spread throughout India. The poems and songs of later Hindu saints of north IndiaKabir, Caitanya (14851533), Surdas (14851563), Mirabai (sixteenth century), and othersalso depict the longing for God and the bliss of union with the divine in simple yet moving terms.

Principal Beliefs

While it is difficult to list doctrines that all Hindus and Hindu traditions would accept, there is a group of core beliefs that come close to being universally shared by all those called "Hindu."

Karma and Rebirth.

The original meaning of the word karma is "work," and the earliest application of the term in Vedic texts is "ritual action or labor"that is, correctly and precisely executed activity that will have a salutary effect on the participants of the ritual and on the universe as a whole. Rituals beginning with the samskara s, rites of passage performed at critical junctures in the life of a youth, had as their purpose to repair the imperfections of birth. Ritual work thus also consisted of the construction of a religiously viable self, and while Vedic fire sacrifices tended to be eclipsed by other forms of religious practice in later Hinduism, the performance of the samskara s has continued to the present day and is done for much the same reason. Finally, already in the Vedic period, ritual work was also the means for creating a desirable afterlife for oneself. A divine, or heavenly, self is "born out of the sacrifice"that is, it is the product of one's ritual résumé, of the work one has done throughout one's lifetime.

The notion that one's own ritual acts (for in Vedic times these were the only acts that really mattered) had consequencesin the future as well as the presentis one of the possible sources for a doctrine that was to have huge implications for the Hindu religious worldview: the notion that all actions produced fruit, good or bad, that determined the quality of one's life. This causal and moral law of karma first appears in the early Upanishads and also features as a prominent doctrine in the new religions that arose in India at this time, Buddhism and Jainism. From this time forward, the nature of one's actionsand the attitude with which actions were performedwas believed to have determinative consequences over one's future, both in this lifetime and in future rebirths.

This concept of a "law of karma"whereby good acts result in good results, bad in badextends the Vedic notion of consequential action from the confines of the ritual to the whole of life. Just as in the Vedic period one's future life is the product of one's activity, here too one's rebirth is directly correlated to actions performed in this life. But the law of karma also presupposes a series of past lives; the deeds done in those lives determine the circumstances of one's present existence. And the theory assumes future lives, not just in heavens or hells but in this world or any of a potentially infinite number of world systems. Finally, it presupposes that one may be reborn in any of these locales as any number of entities, ranging from gods to inanimate objects; good karma obviously would entail a better rebirth, bad karma results in a worse existence.

Dharma and the Varnashrama Dharma system.

Another key concept of Hinduism, and one that is closely connected to those of karma and rebirth, is dharma, a multivalent term that includes within its semantic range religion or righteousness, but also duty. Doing one's dharma means not only remaining ethical but also assuming the duties that are proper to the class or caste one is born into (due to one's past karma), and to the stage of life one is presently in. Performing one's own duty (svadharma ), as it has been assigned to by birth and by the stage of life, has traditionally been an important Hindu ideal: "Your own duty done imperfectly is better than another man's done well. It is better to die in one's own duty; another man's duty is perilous" (Bhagavad Gita, 3.35).

The doctrine of svadharma, backed up by the concepts of karma and rebirth, underlies one of the most important and enduring institutions of Hindu India, the caste system. Inequalities in the present life are regarded as a result of differing past karma, and the inequalities of a projected future will reflect the rewards and punishments of actions done in the present: "Now people here whose behavior is pleasant can expect to enter a pleasant womb, like that of a woman of the Brahman [the priestly class], the Ksatriya [the warrior class], of the Vaisya [agriculturalist and trader] class. But people of foul behavior can expect to enter a foul womb, like that of a dog, a pig, or an outcaste woman" (Chandogya Upanishad, 5.10.7).

From the time of the Veda onward, the four basic classes of Hindu societyBrahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras (servants)were assigned specific roles and functions and urged not to deviate from such in-born duties. The naturalness of this arrangementor even its divine sanctionwas asserted in part by integrating the origins of the social classes within stories about the cosmos's origins. The most famous of the texts in which the social classes are depicted as part of the original creation is Rig Veda 10.90, which tells of the universe originating from a primordial sacrifice of God, here called the Cosmic Man. From that sacrifice and dismemberment, the various elements of the cosmos came into being: the worlds, the sun and moon, the seasons, the various types of supernatural beings, the animals, and so forth. The social classes originated then, brought forth from the parts of the body of the creator god: "When they divided the Cosmic Man, into how many parts did they apportion him? What do they call his mouth, his two arms and thighs and feet? His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made into the Kshatriya; his thighs the Vaishya; and from his feet the Shudras were born" (Rig Veda, 10.90.1112).

Such is the basic outline of the caste system: four principal classes, each with its own assigned occupation, hierarchically ranked (and correlated with the appropriate body part of the creator god). At the top is the class whose job concerns the religious sphere; the Brahman priest is, according to the texts (not coincidentally composed by members of this class), to be regarded as a kind of human god. The Kshatriyas are to be rulers and warriors and engage in the activities appropriate to their birth. As for the commoners, they are to pursue occupations concerned with wealth and prosperity, tending to livestock and trade. The servants' duties and occupations are straightforward: to humbly serve members of the higher classes and hope for a better rebirth. Finally, there are the occupations of those who live below this hierarchy, the so-called untouchables, who are below even the servants.

Dharma, or proper duty, is thus differentiated according to class and caste but also according to stage of life. The first stage in the ideal structure laid out in Hindu texts is that of a student. A young boy is given over to a teacher, or guru, with whom he lives and serves for a period of many years while studying the sacred Veda under the teacher's guidance. The lifestyle assigned to this stage of life is one of austerity, asceticism, and discipline. Among the other duties laid out for those in the student stage of life are chastity, study of the sacred texts, and obedience to the teacher.

The next stage of life, that of the householder, begins when the student leaves his teacher's home, marries, and takes up his proper profession. In the householder stage of life, he properly pursues not only dharma (used here in the specific sense of religious duties) but also the human ends of artha private gain, understood as material prosperity, self-interest, political advantage, and in general getting ahead in the worldand kama or pleasure. The householder is charged with supporting not just his household but also other community members through alms and other gifts to those in other stages of life.

After having raised a family as a householder, a man may enter the third stage of life as what is called a forest-dweller. This stage is characterized by ascetic practices and gradual detachment from the world, including the renunciation of cultivated food (he should live on food that grows in the jungle) and of "all possessions":

After he has lived in the householder's stage of life in accordance with the rules in this way, a twice-born Vedic graduate should live in the forest, properly restrained and with his sensory powers conquered. When a householder sees that he is wrinkled and gray, and (when he sees) the children of his children, then he should take himself to the wilderness. Renouncing all food cultivated in the village and all possessions, he should hand his wife over to his sons and go to the forestor take her along. He should eat vegetables that grow on land or in water, flowers, roots, and fruits, the products of pure trees, and the oils from fruits. He should not eat anything grown from land tilled with a plough, even if someone has thrown it out, nor roots and fruits grown in a village, even if he is in distress [from hunger]. (Manu, 6.13, 13, 16)

The final stage of life is that of the world-renouncer, who continues and furthers the ascetic practices of the forest-dweller. In this stage, the wandering hermit should live entirely detached from the things of this world, alone and without companionship, perfectly content and in a state of equanimity. He should beg but once a day, and not be "addicted to food," hope for lots of alms, or be disappointed should he receive nothing:

He should always go all alone, with no companion, to achieve success; realizing that success is for the man who is alone, he neither deserts nor is deserted. The hermit should have no fire and no home, but should go to a village to get food, silent, indifferent, unwavering and deep in concentration. A skull-bowl, the roots of trees, poor clothing, no companionship, and equanimity to everythingthis is the distinguishing mark of one who is freed. He should not welcome dying, nor should he welcome living, but wait for the right time as a servant waits for orders. He should live here on earth seated in ecstatic contemplation of the soul, indifferent, without any carnal desires, with the soul as his only companion and happiness as his goal. He should go begging once a day and not be eager to get a great quantity, for an ascetic who is addicted to food becomes attached to sensory objects, too. He should not be sad when he does not get anything nor delighted when he gets something, but take only what will daily sustain his vital breath, transcending any attachment to material things. (Manu, 6.42-45; 49; 55; 57)

Samsara, liberation, and the ways to attain liberation.

Yet another central concept in Hinduism is the notion that perpetual birth, death, and rebirth occur not just at the level of human beings but of the universe as a whole. The Sanskrit name for this theory is samsara, a word that literally means to wander or pass through a series of states or conditions. Samsara describes the beginningless and endless cycle of cosmic or universal death and rebirth; all of phenomenal existence is transient, ever-changing, and cyclical. Correlative to this understanding of the world is belief in the fundamentally illusory nature of the world of appearancesa concept known in Hinduism as maya. It is because one is ignorant of reality's true nature that one perceives a world of differentiation and change; and it is through our own ignorance that we suffer and produce karma.

Samsara is contrasted to an unconditioned, eternal, and transcendent state that is equated with freedom or liberation from such ignorance, transience, suffering, and rebirth. All Hindu traditions posit an alternative to karma and rebirth and the wheel of samsara. This state of release, freedom, or liberation from karma and rebirth is called moksha. To obtain this liberation, most Hindu traditions believe that one must find a way to stop the workings of karma and the ignorant desire that motivates ordinary action. Among the various groups of world-renouncers that have arisen in the history of Hinduism, a kind of pessimism surrounds the value of worldly life. Release from the wheel of phenomenal existence among these groups often entails eliminating desire through ascetic practices and renouncing the world of ordinary activity:

On knowing him [the true self], one becomes an ascetic. Desiring him only as their home, mendicants wander forth. Verily, because they know this, the ancients desired not offspring, saying: "What shall we do with offspring, we whose is this Soul, this world?" They, verily, rising above the desire for sons and the desire for wealth and the desire for worlds, lived the life of a mendicant. For the desire for sons is the desire for wealth, and the desire for wealth is the desire for worlds; for both these are desires. (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.22)

Another strategy for eliminating karma and its bonds to samsara was the development of the discipline called yoga. Yoga was intended to calm the mind and body, obtain equanimity and tranquility, by ceasing to act ("curbing his movements," as the text below states) and focusing the mind:

When he keeps his body straight, with the three sections erect, and draws the senses together with the mind into his heart, a wise man shall cross all the frightful rivers. Compressing his breaths in here and curbing his movements, a man should exhale through one nostril when his breath is exhausted. A wise man should keep his mind vigilantly under control, just as he would that wagon yoked to unruly horses. (Svetesvatara Upanishad, 2.89)

Yet another method to final liberation within the traditions that comprise Hinduism is the development of wisdom, or jnana. The path of wisdom requires, first and foremost, that one understand properly the nature of the universe. In the monistic philosophy first encountered in the Upanishads and later forming one of the principal schools of Hindu philosophy, jnana means penetrating the illusory appearance of the world as differentiated, and attaining a mystical wisdom of the unitary true nature of the universe and all that is in it. Attaining such transformative wisdom is itself equated with moksha, or liberationliberation from ignorance, and also liberation from karma.

True knowledge is the knowledge of the true self's unity and identity (the atman ) with the cosmic One, the brahman. Both the real self (which is not the individual ego but one's changeless true nature) and the cosmic One are depicted as unborn, unchanging, and therefore not affected by karma: "Verily, he is the great, unborn Soul, who is this [person] consisting of knowledge among the senses. In the space within the heart lies the ruler of all, the lord of all, the king of all. He does not become greater by good action nor inferior by bad action" (Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, 4.4.22). Wisdom acts as a kind of fire that burns up the individual's accumulated past karma, and uproots desire, which is the very source of karma and the rebirths it provokes.

Another strand within the Hindu tradition also accepts the necessity for wisdom and self-discipline to attain the final goal but denies that action can simply be avoided or somehow arrested. The point is not to renounce society and duty but rather to attain a desireless state within the world of activity. Although upholding the doctrine of duty, or svadharma, The Bhagavad Gita also teaches that such actions should be performed without desire. Since desire is the root cause of karma, desireless action in accordance with one's dharma will have no karmic consequences. Such a person is said to be truly wise, like the world-renouncers, but unlike them does not abandon action but rather performs it in the right way.

Also in The Bhagavad Gita are found the earliest expressions in the Sanskrit texts of what would become an enormously influential movement in Hinduism, that of devotion to a personalized deity. The theistic strains within Hinduism emphasize a different method to liberation, that of bhakti, or devotion to and faith in God. In the Gita, desireless action is also represented as sacrificial action, with the karmic fruits of all acts being given up to God. It is, finally, devotion, or bhakti, to Krishna that the Gita teaches is the way to salvation:

Whatever you dowhat you take, what you offer, what you give, what penances you performdo as an offering to me, Arjuna! You will be freed from the bonds of action, from the fruit of fortune and misfortune; armed with the discipline of renunciation, your self liberated, you will join me. (Bhagavad Gita, 9.2728)

The devotionalistic wings of Hinduism, with their array of deities, each one regarded by devotees as supreme, all assume that it is by God's grace that suffering can be overcome and salvation made possible. In some of its forms, the bhakti movement seems to have attracted many low caste followers and others who had been left out or diminished by caste-oriented Hinduism. The movement's emphasis on simple devotion, humility, and the power of God's grace to redeem even the sinner had obvious appeal, and the power attributed to bhakti to short-circuit the karmic process is often said to be enormous and unfathomable. The bhakti movement also reinterpreted a long-standing Hindu belief that desire was the product of ignorance and the root of karma, rebirth, and suffering. For in devotionalistic traditions, longing for Godoften portrayed in erotic termsand the pain of separation from the object of desire become the emotional means for ratcheting up one's devotion to fever pitch. At the same time, most devotionalistic cults eschewed the goal of merging with or achieving identity with the object of their devotion, for that would preclude the bliss of remaining distinct while basking in God's love.

The set of traditions collectively termed Tantrism likewise reworked desire from its conceptualization as the ultimate source of human suffering into a religious tool. Esoteric tantric groups gained notoriety for their radical and transgressive methods, often arguing that the best way to attain liberation from suffering and its causes was not to renounce but rather to confront them and, under ritual conditions, engage in practices that for the uninitiated would result in the most disastrous karmic ends. Through various meditative and ritual techniques, the tantric practitioner could practice what others prohibited and could eradicate desire by means of desire.

For some tantric groups, methods to liberation included antisocial ascetic practices such as eschewing clothing and ordinary hygiene, meditating in cemeteries, carrying human skulls as begging bowls, practices involving human corpses, and the worship of deities in gruesome, terrifying forms. For others, it has meant engaging in ritualized sex and exchange of bodily fluids, or rituals that call for the ingestion of otherwise prohibited substances. In all cases, the purpose of such antinomian behavior seems to have been in one way or another to transcend the world of dualities (including pure/impure, good/bad) and achieve the liberation from samsara all Hindu groups posit as the highest goal.

For most Hindus, however, final liberation seems to be out of reach in this life. The vast majority, past and present, simply try to live virtuously and obtain, as a result, a pleasant life here on earth and a better rebirth in the future. From Vedic times to the present, rituals such as sacrifice and the worship service known as puja (performed either in the temple or at home), whereby one ritually honors the deity in the form of an image, had pleasing the gods as their goal in the hopes that the gods would protect and aid the worshipper. Festivals, pilgrimages, and lifecycle rituals are also popular among ordinary Hindus, as they are among religious practitioners the world over. Although religious virtuosi may follow the various methods laid out to attain the highest ends of Hinduism, the vast majority of Hindus content themselves with more modest goals.

See also Buddhism ; Christianity ; Islam ; Jainism ; Judaism ; Religion .

bibliography

Embree, Ainslie T., ed. Sources of Indian Tradition. Vol. 1: From the Beginning to 1800. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

Herman, A. L. A Brief Introduction to Hinduism: Religion, Philosophy, and Ways of Liberation. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1991.

Hopkins, Thomas J. The Hindu Religious Tradition. Encino, Calif.: Dickenson, 1971.

Kinsley, David R. Hinduism: A Cultural Perspective. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1993.

Klostermaier, Klaus K. A Survey of Hinduism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

The Laws of Manu. Translated by Wendy Doniger, with Brian K. Smith. London, New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

Brian Smith

Hinduism

views updated May 18 2018

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Hinduism

Hinduism, the most common religion of the Indian subcontinent, is a South Asian religion based on traditions that emerged around 1500 bce and whose followers are called Hindus. In India, Hinduism is called Sanatana Dharma, which means "eternal religion" or Vaidika Dharma, which means "religion of the Vedas," a set of Hindu scriptures (holy writings). Hinduism differs from many of the world's major religions because it does not have a standard theology (discussion about the nature of God or gods), a specific founder or prophet, a systematic moral code, or an organizational structure. Hinduism can be thought of as a loose association of religions, each differing from the others but all sharing a common set of core beliefs. Hinduism is also commonly regarded as a way of life or a philosophy (a search for a general under standing of values and reality) rather than a formalized religion.

Nonetheless, it is the world's third largest religion, following Christianity and Islam. Estimates of its size range from 850 million to 1 billion (the highest estimate is 1.4 billion) followers, or approximately 14 percent of the world's population. The country with the largest number of Hindus is India, with about 751 million, representing 79 percent of the nation's population. The country with the highest share of Hindus is Nepal, with 89 percent, or about 17.4 million. Other countries with significant Hindu populations are Bangladesh (11 percent; 12.6 million), Indonesia (2.5 percent; 4 million), Sri Lanka (15 percent; 2.8 million), and Mauritius (15 percent; 400,000). In the United States about 0.5 percent of the population, or about 2 million people, are Hindus, a sharp increase from 1980, when the number was only about 387,000. Significant numbers of American Hindus are concentrated in the state of New York. Canada estimates that it is home to about 157,000 Hindus. In Europe, the country with the highest percentage of Hindus is England, with about 1 percent, or 410,000 people.

WORDS TO KNOW

artha:
Prosperity and success in material affairs.
aum:
Often spelled om, the sacred syllable and symbol of Hinduism; a symbol of the unknowable nature of Brahma.
Bhagavad Gita:
A Sanskrit poem regarded as a Hindu scripture; part of the epic Mahabharata, which means "Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty"; examines the nature of God and how mortals can know him.
bhakti:
Devotion.
Brahma:
The creator-god.
Brahman:
The pantheistic (including all gods) principle that sees all of reality as a unity.
dharma:
Righteousness in one's religious and personal life.
kama:
Gratification of the senses.
karma:
Literally, "action"; the principle that the consequences of a person's action determines how that person will live his or her next life.
moksha:
Salvation; liberation from samsara.
murti:
Image of a god.
nirvana:
The escape from the cycles of life and death to achieve salvation.
nivritti:
People who choose to withdraw from the world to lead a life of renunciation and contemplation.
pravritti:
People who choose to live in the world rather than withdraw from it.
puja:
Worship.
purusharthas:
The four aims of Hinduism or "the doctrine of the fourfold end of life."
Rig Veda:
The central scripture of Hinduism, a collection of inspired hymns and songs.
samsara:
The ongoing cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.
Sanskrit:
An ancient Indo-European language that is the language of Hinduism, as well as of much classical Indian literature.
Shiva:
The destroyer god, embodying the erotic and sexual.
Shivaism:
A major sect of Hinduism, which sees Shiva ("the Destroyer") as the central god.
swastika:
A pictorial character that symbolizes the eternal nature of Brahma because it points in all directions.
Upanishads:
The core of Hindu philosophy; collections of texts, originally part of the Vedas, that explain such central Hindu beliefs as karma, reincarnation, nirvana, the soul, and Brahman.
Vaishnavaism:
A major sect of Hinduism, which sees Vishnu ("the Preserver") as the central god.
Vedas:
The chief sacred scriptures of Hinduism; meaning knowledge, wisdom, or vision.
Vishnu:
Also called Krishna; the preserver-god.

Membership in Hinduism requires no specific instruction or ritual. A person who rejects the teachings of the Vedas (Hindu sacred texts) is not a Hindu, but anyone who accepts them can properly be called a Hindu.

History and development

Scholars (those who study a particular subject) debate the origins of Hinduism. Because some of the principles and practices of Hinduism dates back thousands of years, before written records, it is difficult to attach dates to its founding and development. In the nineteenth century the so-called classical theory of the origins of Hinduism was developed. According to this view, the roots of Hinduism lay in the Indus Valley civilization and date back to 4000 bce, perhaps even earlier. Then in about 1500 bce the area was invaded by Aryans, or Indo-European tribes from Central Asia. At about this time, according to the theory, the Indus Valley civilization disappeared. The invading tribes brought with them a religion called Vedism. The theory held that Hinduism developed out of a mingling of Vedism and the Indus Valley culture.

More recently many scholars have rejected the classical theory. Using newer historical evidence, they believe that there was no Aryan invasion and that Hinduism evolved directly out of the beliefs of the Indus Valley culture. Astronomers, or scientists who study the regular movements of the stars and planets, point to a specific date for the "founding" of Hinduism, noting that one of Hinduism's sacred texts describes the position of the stars when Krishna, a Hindu god, was born; the stars were in this position in 3102 bce. Another significant date is 600 bce, when one of Hinduism's most sacred texts, the Rig Veda, was formalized.

In the early centuries of the common era, a number of Hindu sects, or subgroups, began to emerge. Each of these sects was dedicated to a specific god or goddess. In the early twenty-first century most Hindus, especially those in urban areas, are followers of one of three major divisions within Hinduism. One is called Vaishnavaism, which sees Vishnu, "the Preserver," as the central god. The second is called Shivaism, whose followers see Shiva, "the Destroyer," as the central god. The third division consists of the Saktis, who worship Devi, "the Divine Mother" or the mother aspect of God. Saktis recognize Devi as the mother of all things and a representation of God's greatness. In rural areas, many Hindus worship a village god or goddess who influences such matters as fertility and disease.

Scholars generally recognize four major periods in the history of Hinduism: the Vedic Period, the Epic and Classical Period, the Medieval Period, and the Modern Period. The first was the Vedic Period, extending roughly from 2000 bce to about 400 bce. During this period most of the Hindu holy texts, including the Vedas, were written down, and most of the basic beliefs of Hinduism were formed. The second is called the Epic and Classical Period, extending roughly from 400 bce to about 600 ce. This was the period when Hinduism's two great epic poems, the Mahabharata (which contains the Rig Veda) and the Ramayana, were composed. It was also during this period that the Hindu caste system was created. (The caste system was and still is a hereditary social class system that identifies the duties and obligations, but also restricts the occupations, of Hindus.) The third major period was the Medieval Period, roughly from 600 to 1800. During this period Hinduism experienced a great deal of debate and developed numerous schools of thought.

During the Modern Period, from 1800 to the present, Hinduism has had increased contact with Western cultures and ways of thinking, primarily because India was a British colony during much of this time. It began to have more appeal to non-Indians after Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) appeared and spoke at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. His paper presented there, "What Is Hinduism?," exposed many Westerners to Hinduism for the first time. Aiding this spread of Hinduism is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which has helped establish Hinduism around the world. Early in the Modern Period, Hinduism began to fall into some disfavor in India, but during the twentieth century the religion underwent a revival.

The challenge for Hinduism in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has been adaptation to modern life. Modern Hindus have made efforts to lessen emphasis on ritual (a formal ceremony or way of doing things) and difficult-to-understand points of theology, to include modern approaches to education, to see religion in more worldwide terms, and to accommodate a growing role for women.

Sects and schisms

Hinduism is a remarkably tolerant, open, and elastic religion, meaning that it incorporates numerous and diverse sects (branches or schools of thought) without conflict or division. Hindus believe that because people have different temperaments, philosophies, and ways of looking at the world and the universe, religious faith should accommodate their views. In addition, because people change over time, they achieve salvation by taking different paths. The Upanishads, one of Hinduism's sacred texts, declares that all paths lead to the same goal, just as cows of different colors all yield the same white milk. In the Bhagavad Gita, another

About Hinduism

  • Belief. Hindus believe that all reality is a unity, expressed by the concept of Brahman. They also believe in the transmigration of the soul, or reincarnation (rebirth), and that the quality of a person's next life is determined by his or her character in the present life.
  • Followers. Hinduism is the third-largest religion in the world, with about 850 million to 1 billion followers. Most Hindus live in India, but there are significant Hindu populations in other countries of South Asia.
  • Name of God. Hindus worship many aspects of the supreme being, Brahma, as separate gods or goddesses. Two of the most prominent are Vishnu, the preserver-god, and Shiva, the destroyer-god.
  • Symbols. The two most prominent symbols in Hinduism are aum (or om), which represents the sacred syllable that Hindus intone to become one with the unknowable Brahma, and the swastika. The swastika is a cross with branches bent at right angles that symbolize the eternal nature of Brahma, pointing in all directions.
  • Worship. Hindu worship does not have a formal structure. Worship is often conducted alone or with family in the home. When Hindus attend a temple, individual worship is aided by priests, though communal worship consists of prayers and readings from the Vedas.
  • Dress. The traditional dress of Hindu men is the veshti, a long cloth, similar to a sarong, wound around the waist and stretched to the ankles. The traditional dress for women is the sari, a single, long, flowing piece of cloth, draped so that one end forms a skirt and the other covers the shoulders and possibly the head.
  • Texts. The major scriptures of Hinduism include the Vedas, especially the oldest, the Rig Veda; the Upanishads, which are discussions and comments on the Vedas; and the Bhagavad Gita, which examines the nature of God and how mortals can know Him.
  • Sites. There is no single site that is sacred to Hindus, though the festival of Kumbh Mela occurs four times every twelve years in the Indian cities of Prayag, Haridwar, Uijain, and Nashik. All Hindus regard the Ganga (Ganges) River as holy.
  • Observances. Hindus have a great many festivals and other observances. Three of the most common are Diwali, the festival of lights; Navratri, "nine nights," the celebration of the triumph of good over evil and of the feminine principle in the world; and Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage that is held four times during a twelve-year cycle.
  • Phrases. One commonly used word is namaste, a greeting offered with the palms of the hands placed together at chest level and accompanied by a slight bow. It literally means "I bow to you."

sacred text, Vishnu says, "Howsoever men approach Me, even so do I welcome them, for the path men take from every side is Mine."

Members of the various Hindu sects, rather than rejecting the viewpoints of other sects (and even other religions), embrace them, believing that each sect simply emphasizes one or more different aspects of the same central faith. Accordingly, the history of Hinduism has been without the violence that has characterized religious disputes in other faiths such as Christianity and Islam. At the same time, Hinduism is a complex religion, with numerous sects and subsects.

Vaishnavas, Saivas, and Saktis

Overall, Hinduism can be divided into three broad sects or classes: Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnu; Saivas, who worship Shiva; and Saktis, who worship Devi, or the mother aspect of God, a feminine principle that gives birth and nurtures. Other major sects include the Sauras, who worship the sun-god; the Ganapatyas, who worship Ganesh; and the Kumaras, who worship Skanda as the supreme God.

The first major sect in Hinduism is Vaishnavaism, whose followers are called Vaishnavas. This sect itself covers a number of branches. The oldest one is the Sri Sampradaya, which was founded by Ramanuja (c. 1017–1137) some time in the middle of the twelfth century. The followers of Ramanuja worship Vishnu and his wife, the goddess Lakshmi. Some of the followers of Ramanuja (called the "Southern School") believe that self-surrender is the only way to salvation. The image they use to describe this is a kitten that surrenders itself to its mother and is carried around without any effort on its part. Others (called the "Northern School") believe that there are many other paths to salvation. The image they use is of a young monkey that has to cling to its mother as it is being carried about.

One branch of Vaishnavas that is likely to be familiar to Westerners is the Caitanyas, otherwise known as the Hare Krishna Movement. In India, this branch is prominent in Bengal and Orissa. This branch was founded by Caitanya Mahaprabhu (or Lord Gouranga; 1485–1533). The Caitanyas worship Krishna as the supreme being, and members constantly repeat Krishna's name. In the twentieth century Swami Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a movement with branches all over the world. The movement asks its members to recite with devotion and faith the Hare Krishna mantra: "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare." Rama refers to Krishna's brother, Balarama. The word hare has no specific meaning, but is rather art of the mantra, a call to Krishna's divine energy.

The second major sect of Hinduism is the Saivas, but once again, this sect includes a number of branches. Chief among them are the Smartas, most prominent in the Tamil region of India. Smartism is an ancient tradition formed by Sankara (c. 788–c. 820) in the ninth century. It is regarded as a liberal sect of Hinduism and emphasizes a life of meditation and the study of philosophical truths. Smartas worship six forms of god, allowing each member to worship a "preferred deity," or god, although each deity is regarded as a reflection of one supreme god. According to the Smartas, "It is the one Reality which appears to our ignorance as a manifold [diverse] universe of names and forms and changes. Like the gold of which many ornaments are made, it remains in itself unchanged. Such is Brahman, and That art Thou." Chief among the gods of the Smartas is Shiva. The Smartas, however, are extremely diverse and include at least forty-two different branches, many of them associated with different regions of India.

The third major sect is the Saktis, or Saktism. Saktism is followed by hundreds of thousands of Indians, primarily in the Bengal region. Its chief characteristics are its view of God as a destroyer, its emphasis on the feminine, mother aspect of God, and its emphasis on ceremony and ritual. The word sakti means "energy," and Saktis see force or power as the active principle of the universe, personified by Devi, the mother goddess. The chief goal of Saktism is moksha, achieving salvation through the bliss that comes with total identification with the supreme being. Another major goal is good works. There are at least four different branches of the Saktis.

These are just a handful of Hindu sects. There are many more, each emphasizing a different aspect of Hinduism. No one of these sects believes that its doctrines or practices are more valid than those of other sects. Since Hinduism sees all humans as an aspect of the divine, and the variety of beliefs and practices is a manifestation, or demonstration, of the complexity of divine principles that fill the universe.

Basic beliefs

Hindu beliefs are complex and sometimes difficult to understand. Indeed, many Westerners hold mistaken beliefs about Hinduism. Chief among these is that Hinduism is "polytheistic," meaning that Hindus believe in more than one god. (Polytheism stands in contrast to monotheism, or the belief in one supreme god; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the world's major monotheistic religions.) This belief is only partially true, for while Hinduism recognizes a variety of gods and goddesses, all are seen as aspects, forms, or manifestations of a single supreme god, Brahma (in Sanskrit, Brahman). This type of religion is termed henotheistic.

Another way of thinking of Hinduism is to see it as "Trinitarian," meaning that there is one supreme god with three "persons" or forms. The supreme god is Brahma, the creator-god who continues to create new realities. In Hindu belief Brahma refers to a pantheistic principle that sees all of reality as a unity. ("Pantheism" is defined as any belief system that equates God with the forces of nature or with natural principles.) The universe, then, is not a collection of parts but a single thing that is divine throughout. Brahma simultaneously is the universe and transcends (rises above or goes beyond the limits of) the universe. In addition to Brahma is Vishnu, or Krishna. Vishnu is the preserver-god, who preserves the creations of Brahma. Whenever dharma (defined as law, order, righteousness, duty, and religion) comes under threat, Vishnu takes on one of ten incarnations, or physical forms, and travels from heaven to Earth to set matters right. Finally, Hinduism recognizes Shiva (often spelled Siva), the Destroyer. Shiva embodies the erotic, or sexual, and is alternately compassionate and destructive. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva can be thought of as the trinity of Hindu gods.

Reincarnation and karma

A core belief of Hinduism has to do with the transmigration of the soul, what in the West is often called reincarnation. Hindus believe that after death, one's soul is transferred into another body. Thus, life consists of an ongoing cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, continuing through many lifetimes, a cycle called samsara. During one's lifetime, a person accumulates karma, which is the principle that determines how the person will live his or her next life. (The word karma has entered the Western vocabulary to refer to a similar notion, perhaps expressed best by the phrase "what goes around comes around," meaning that a person's good or bad deeds can be repaid in kind.)

A person whose acts, devotion, and thoughts are pure accumulates good karma and can therefore be reborn at a higher level of creation; one guilty of evil thoughts and deeds will be reborn at a lower level of creation, even as an animal. A person who accumulates good karma throughout several lifetimes can eventually escape samsara and achieve enlightenment. This is a state called nirvana (another word that has entered the Western vocabulary to indicate generally a blissful or happy state, though the word has a more specific meaning to Hindus similar to the Christian idea of heaven). Hindus believe that the world's inequalities of wealth, suffering, and prestige are the result of karma. They are the inevitable result of previous acts, both in one's current life and in previous lives.

Verses from the Upanishad, a sacred text, ask whether there is an end to the cycle of reincarnation. They maintain that the human soul ("atman") is supreme and is responsible for all that it experiences. The chief topic of the Katha Upanishad explains using the analogy of a chariot, where the soul rules the chariot, which is the body; the reins are the mind, the horses are the senses, and the paths the chariot takes are the objects of the senses. One who lacks discipline never reaches his or her goal: reincarnation at a higher level, ultimately leading to wisdom and enlightenment and becoming one with Brahma.

Guidelines for living

Another key belief of Hindus has to do with how one's life should be organized, referred to as purusharthas. These activities are often called the "four aims of Hinduism" or sometimes "the doctrine of the fourfold end of life." The first three aims are dharma, referring to being righteous (obeying divine and moral laws) in religious and personal life; artha, or achieving prosperity (wealth) and success in material affairs, a sign of God's blessings; and kama, referring to gratification (rewards or pleasures) of the senses (that is, sexual, sensual, and mental enjoyment). These three aims are pursued by pravritti, or people who choose to live within the world. The fourth aim of Hinduism is that of the nivritti, or those who choose to renounce, or give up, the world. This aim is called moksha, sometimes spelled moksa, meaning liberation from samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This is considered the highest goal of all of humankind.

A related belief has to do with the four stages of life, referred to as ashramas. The first of the four stages is Brahmacharya, roughly the first one-quarter of life, when a person remains unmarried and contemplates Brahma with the help of a guru or teacher. The second is Grihasthya, called the householder stage, when a person marries and takes on a professional career. The third is Vanaprastha, as a person ages, begins to withdraw from the affairs of the world, and turns duties over to his or her children. The final state is Sanyasa, when the person withdraws into seclusion, contemplates Brahma, and begins to give up the body in preparation for the next life.

As an aid to achieving these goals, Hindus practice meditation (focused thought aimed at attaining greater spiritual understanding). Yoga is the most common form of meditation, but others include daily devotions and various public rituals. Yoga is a physical and spiritual practice that tries to prepare the body and the mind to receive spiritual truths. Because one of the chief goals of Hinduism is the attainment of enlightenment and wisdom, Hindus have always been willing to consider and even incorporate other beliefs, so Hindus are tolerant of other religions and religious practices. A common saying among Hindus is Ekam sataha vipraha bahudha vandanti, which means "The truth is One, but different sages 'wise people' call it by different names."

Hindus accept five basic theological (religious) principles. These principles are:

  1. God exists. There is one absolute ultimate reality. There is one trinity of gods (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) but these take several divine forms.
  2. All humans are divine.
  3. Unity of existence is achieved through love.
  4. All Hindus should strive for religious harmony.
  5. All Hindus should have knowledge of the three Gs: Ganga (the sacred river), Gita (the sacred scripture), and Gayatri (the sacred mantra, or mystical formula that aids contemplation and meditation).

Additionally, Hindus accept ten commandments or "disciplines":

  1. Satya, truth;
  2. Ahimsa, nonviolence;
  3. Brahmacharya, avoidance of adultery (being unfaithful to one's spouse);
  4. Asteya, no desire to possess or steal;
  5. Aparighara, not being corrupt;
  1. Shaucha, cleanliness;
  2. Santosh, contentment;
  3. Swadhyaya, reading of scriptures or holy writings;
  4. Tapas, austerity, perseverance, penance; and
  5. Ishwarpranidhan, regular prayers

Sadhus and sannyasins are the ascetics, or holy men and women, of Hinduism. An ascetic lives a solitary life of divine contemplation and rejection of the material world, meaning the world of pride of ownership in possessions and the need for material goods such as cars and large homes. They, too, place emphasis on the performance of good works, healing the sick, nursing people who are bedridden, and comforting people who are upset or without hope.

Paths to salvation

Hindus believe that there are three possible paths to salvation, or moksha, with each following a different yoga. Yoga to a Hindu is far more than the exercise, stretching, and relaxation techniques many non-Hindus practice to improve their health. Yoga is a spiritual path, a form of discipline that enables a person to achieve oneness with the divine. The first of these is called the "way of work," or karma yoga. This path emphasizes fulfilling duties to the family and to society and doing good deeds for others. It enables a person to, in effect, cancel out any bad karma accumulated in present or former lives.

The second path to salvation is called the "way of knowledge," or jñana yoga. The explanation of this path is that ignorance binds people to the cycle of rebirths. The chief form this ignorance takes is the belief that a person is an individual and not part of Brahma, the ultimate divine reality. This belief gives rise to bad acts and therefore bad karma. One can reach salvation by reaching first a state of awareness that allows one to recognize an identity with Brahma. This is done through meditation and other intellectual pursuits, such as studying or reading the sacred texts.

The third path of salvation is called the "way of devotion," or bhakti yoga. The majority of Hindus in India favor this path to salvation. It tends to be a more personal, more emotional view of religion. Through this path, the person surrenders him or herself to a personal Hindu god or goddess, usually through worship, pilgrimages, and rituals. In this way, a person can be absorbed into the divine reality, losing any sense of individual existence and becoming one with Brahma.

Sacred writings

The major sacred scriptures of Hinduism are the Vedas. The word veda means "vision," "knowledge," or "wisdom," and the Vedas are thought to be manifestations of God's wisdom in human speech. In fact, it is believed that humans did not write the Vedas, but that they were revealed to sages and seers who handed them down orally over time until they were compiled by Vyasa Krishna Dwaipayana. The Vedas, the original scriptures of Hinduism, encompass all spiritual knowledge and regulate the religious, legal, social, and domestic duties of Hindus. Because Hindus kept few written records of the development of the religion, scholars are left to debate when they were written, but most historians put the date at somewhere around 1500 to 1200 bce.

There are four Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda, collectively known to Hindus as Chathurveda. The major text is the Rig Veda. Each Veda consists of four parts: (1) Samhitas, or hymns; (2) Brahmanas, or rituals, including general rules of action for the religious duties of all Hindus; (3) Aranyakas, or theologies; and (4) the Upanishads, or philosophies. The Upanishads are the concluding portion of each Veda and are therefore called the Vedanta, or "end of the Veda." There are 108 Upanishads, and together they form the essence of the teachings of the Vedas. The Aranyakas, literally meaning "forest texts," are objects or meditation for monks and others who live in the forests and who study Hinduism's symbols and mystical beliefs.

Hindu vs. Hindi?

The words Hindu and Hindi are easily confused. The first refers to a person who practices Hinduism, though in the past the word was often used to refer to all natives of India. The second refers to a language, the literary and official language of northern India.

The origin of the word Hindu is uncertain. One theory is that it came from a translation of an ancient inscription that identified a region between the Himalayan Mountains and Bindu Sarovara called Hindusthan, with Hi- in "Himalayan" combined with -indu in "Bindu." A second theory is that it is derived from a Persian word for Indian. A third is that it is a Persian misspelling or mispronunciation of Sindhu, or the river Indus. A final theory is that it was a word invented by the British when India was a British colony (from the eighteenth century to 1947).

The last of the Vedas, the Atharva Veda, is very different from the first three. The hymns contained in it use language that is simpler than that of the Rig Veda. It also includes spells and charms that reflect many of the folk beliefs of early Hindu society. It is more useful as a historical text than as a religious text. In fact, some Hindu scholars do not regard the Atharva Veda as a true Veda. They group the first three Vedas under the term Trayi Veda, meaning "threefold knowledge."

Upanishads

In reality, few people read the Vedas in the twenty-first century, largely because of their complexity. Hindus are more likely to turn to the Upanishads for day-to-day wisdom, for they form the core of Indian and Hindu philosophy, and while they are part of the Vedas, they are thought of, in a sense, as separate from the Vedas. The Upanishads are a collection of texts handed down through oral tradition. The Upanishads include such basic concepts as karma, reincarnation, nirvana, the soul, and Brahma. They also describe meditation and self-realization.

Many authors wrote the Upanishads. Some were priests, but others were poets whose goal was to guide their students to spiritual wisdom. In fact, the word upanishad means "sitting down near" or "sitting close to." It suggests the notion of a student listening to the teachings of a guru or spiritual master. It suggests a past time when students listened to their masters in ashrams, that is, hermitages (solitary places) in the forest. One of the oldest is the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which states the following:

     From the unreal lead me to the real!
     From darkness lead me to light!
     From death lead me to immortality!

If Hinduism could be said to have a core belief, it is expressed in these lines. The state described in these lines can be achieved by meditating, by being aware that one's soul is one with all things, and that Brahma is "all," that is, the universe.

The Upanishads are important not only as religious documents but as documents in the history of ideas and the history of philosophy. They give modern readers insight into the workings of the minds of early Hindu thinkers. They also introduce modern readers to Indian culture, not only that of early centuries but that of today as well. Quite a bit of Indian thought has been influenced by the Upanishads, with their effort to penetrate the mysteries of the universe and humankind's place in it. The Upanishads show modern readers a time when people asked fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and struggled to understand their inner world.

Bhagavad Gita

Although there are numerous texts that are sacred to Hindus, the most important one is undoubtedly the Bhagavad Gita. Many readers find the Bhagavad Gita, which consists of seven hundred Sanskrit verses in eighteen chapters, the most beautiful of Hindu scriptures. It is part of Book VI of the long epic poem the Mahabharata, which means "Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty." It was likely written in the first or second century ce.

The Bhagavad Gita is written as a conversation between a warrior prince, Arjuna, and his companion and charioteer, Krishna, who is an incarnation of the god Vishnu. The dialogue occurs on the battlefield, just as a war is about to begin. As the two armies line up, each sees relatives and friends on the other side. Arjuna hesitates and wonders whether it would be better for all to give up their weapons rather than take part in a cruel war. Krishna, however, tells the prince that he is obligated to perform his duty and to maintain his faith in God. The Bhagavad Gita goes on to examine the nature of God and how humans can come to know him.

Sacred symbols

Hinduism is characterized by two major sacred symbols: aum and the swastika. These symbols have been a part of Hinduism for thousands of years and represent both peace and harmony. A third important symbol is the color saffron, which represents the supreme being.

Passages in Hindu sacred scriptures point to the significance of aum, often spelled om in English. One, from the Katha Upanishad, states:

The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which men desire when they lead the life of continence … is OM. This syllable OM is indeed Brahman. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires. This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma.

Do Hindus Worship Cows?

The short answer to this question is no. Cows are considered sacred, or holy, in Hinduism, but they are not worshipped. The cow can be seen as similar to the lamb in Christianity, which is associated with Jesus Christ. The longer answer to the question reflects the depth and complexity of Hindu thought. When Krishna appeared in human form, it was as a cowherder. One of the Hindu scriptures states, "I offer repeated obeisances [respect, submission] unto Lord Krishna, who is the protector and well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas [bulls]. He is also the protector of the entire society. Unto that Lord, who is always satisfying the senses of the cows, I offer my obeisances again and again."

Hindus believe that all creatures, not just cows, are sacred and should be protected, which may explain why most Hindus are vegetarians. The cow is a symbolic representation of that sacredness. For Hindus, the cow represents life and sustenance. It provides butter, milk, and cream and thus sustains human life. Its dried manure also provides cooking fuel. It is also a gentle creature that asks little of humans. For these reasons, the cow holds a sacred place in Hindu culture.

Another is from the Mandukya Upanishad:

Om is the one eternal syllable of which all that exists is but the development. The past, the present, and the future are all included in this one sound, and all that exists beyond the three forms of time is also implied in it.

The Taittiriya Upanishad also emphasizes the importance of aum and the chanting of Shanti, or "peace" (preceded by the thought "May we never hate").

Aum is of great significance in Hinduism. It is a sacred symbol that represents Brahma, the absolute and the source of all existence. Because Brahma cannot be understood, a symbol is needed to help humans know the unknowable. Aum, therefore, is a symbol for both the aspects of God that humans can perceive and those humans cannot perceive.

Aum is part of a Hindu's daily life. A devout Hindu will begin a journey or work by intoning aum. The symbol is often written at the head of letters, and students often write it at the top of exams. Many Hindus wear the aum symbol as a pendant, and the symbol can be found at any Hindu temple or shrine. Newborns are brought into the world with the symbol: After the child is born, it is ritually cleansed, and aum is written on its tongue with honey.

Aum is not a word. Rather, it is an intonation, uttered with a musical lilt, similar to humming. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, represented in English by aa, au, and ma. Combined, these letters produce the sound aum. Thus, aum is a prayer or mantra, and when it is repeated over and over, it vibrates through the body and penetrates to the core of a person's being, the soul. Intoning aum creates a feeling of bliss and peace. It directs the mind to the abstract and unknowable, at the same time making the unknowable absolute more tangible. For many Hindus, aum creates a virtual trancelike state.

The other major symbol of Hinduism is the swastika. Like aum, the Swastika has great meaning to Hindus. It is not a letter or syllable, but rather a pictorial character. The word swastika is believed to be a combination of two Sanskrit words, su- meaning "good," and asati-, meaning "to exist." Put together, the meaning is something like "may good prevail." The swastika is in the shape of a cross, but all four of the branches of the cross are bent at right angles and face clockwise. The swastika symbolizes the eternal nature of Brahma because it points in all directions. Thus, it represents the notion that the Absolute is present everywhere. Many historians believe that in ancient times, forts were built in the shape of a Swastika. In this way, the symbol became associated with protection, and from there evolved into a religious symbol.

Unfortunately, the swastika was used by the Nazi regime in Germany before and during World War II (1939–45). The Nazis used the symbol in their flag and on their military uniforms. Since the Nazis were responsible for the horrible deaths of millions during World War II, the swastika they displayed so widely became a hated symbol in the West. It represented the cruelty of the Nazis, particularly to Jews and other people they considered undesirables. The Nazi use of the symbol, though, has nothing to do with its use in Hinduism, where it remains a representation of peace and harmony.

One additional symbol bears mentioning: the color saffron, which is close to orange or orange-yellow. For Hindus, saffron is the color of fire, which symbolizes the supreme being. One of the most well-known hymns in the Rig Veda glorifies fire, and in ancient times, when sages moved from one ashram to another in the forest, they carried fire with them. This carrying of fire came to be symbolized by long, forked, saffron-colored flags, which in modern times may be seen flying outside Hindu temples. Hindu monks wear saffron-colored robes, which symbolize their abandonment of material life.

Ganga, the sacred river

The Ganga (in English, Ganges) River is considered sacred to all Hindus. The river starts in the Himalayas and empties into the Bay of Bengal 1,560 miles (2,511 kilometers) away. A legend tells how Brahma caught the sweat from Vishnu's feet and poured it onto the land to form the river. Because Ganga waters came from and were touched by the gods, Hindus believe the waters are holy and are able to wash away one's sins. Even the dead are believed to benefit; if a person's ashes are thrown into the Ganga, that person's next life will be better, or he or she may reach moksha sooner and become one with the divine.

Devout Hindus begin their day by throwing offerings of flowers or grain into the Ganga. They may float small oil lamps on the waters. Some hold water in their hands and then release it back into the river as an offering to their ancestors and the gods. The offerings are accompanied with folded hands and prayers. Since not all Hindus are able to go to the Ganga every day, they may place water in jars and return with these to temples.

Hindu folk belief says that the waters of the Ganga make possible the dead's passage to the world of the ancestors, Pitriloka. Pouring the water on a person's ashes allows that person to pass on from this life. If this is not done the person is doomed to an afterlife of suffering and may cause trouble for those still living.

Worship

Worship in Hinduism is neither formalized nor standardized. For most Hindus, worship consists of bhakti, or devotion, to one or more personal gods or goddesses. Each Hindu is free to choose, often focusing attention on one or a small group of gods with whom the person feels a strong relationship.

Puja, or worship, includes ritual offerings and prayers. These are offered daily or, in some cases, on special days. Before beginning puja, the devotee must prepare by cleansing the body and dressing in fresh clothing. This may be done while chanting a mantra or singing an aarti, or hymn, silently or out loud. If it is close to a mealtime, food should not be consumed until after the puja. Other preparations include freeing the mind from worldly concerns, such as worry about all the things to be done that day, and gathering offerings for the deity. Footwear must be removed before entering the temple, and a bell is rung.

Prayer Beads

Prayer beads are used by followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Though prayer beads are called by different names in the different religions, their purpose is the same: to guide prayer.

In Hinduism, prayer beads are called Rudraksha beads. The beads are strung onto strands and are worn by Hindus to remind them of God's compassion for humanity and love for all. Praying with Rudraksha beads is thought to help one eliminate sin, improve knowledge and virtue, and achieve the reward of living in Shiva's kingdom after death.

Rudraksha beads are made from a tree called the Rudraksha, or Blue Marble. Rudra comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "to cry." Aksha means "eye." Rudra is another name for Shiva. Rudraksha beads, then, are known as Shiva's Tears. Hindu texts tell the story of Shiva who, after meditating for many years on the well-being of all living creatures, opened his eyes and cried tears onto the earth, where they formed Rudraksha trees.

Mala beads are used by Buddhists (followers of Buddhism) as a tool to aid in meditation. Their purpose is to help one focus during meditation and to attain enlightenment by driving away evil and filling one with peace and happiness. A strand of mala beads may contain as few as 30 or as many as 108 beads. They are often made of wood but can also be composed of semiprecious stones.

The prayer beads used in Christianity are called a rosary. A rosary is a string of 59 beads that Christians can use when they pray. The beads represent a series of fifteen meditations on events in the lives of Jesus Christ, Christianity's founder, and Mary, his mother. These events include three sets of "mysteries," The Joyful Mysteries, The Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. Each series of ten beads on a rosary is known as a decade.

A sibbah, or string of prayer beads, is used by Muslims, followers of Islam. There are 99 beads on a strand, and they can be made from wood, stone, or gems or may even be knots in cords. Muslims pray with the beads to keep track of how many times they have recited a prayer to Allah, or God.

In its more elaborate form, puja is conducted in stages. The first is personal purification through washing and calling on the god. The next stage includes prayers, accompanied by offerings of food, flowers, water, incense, or other objects. These rituals are often performed daily in the home, where a shrine can consist of anything from a separate room to an image of the deity, called a murti. Family members worship together, and strict Hindus worship three times a day. Many Hindus worship wearing the sacred thread, a garment that hangs over the left shoulder to the right hip. Brahmins, the highest caste consisting of priests, wear a thread made of cotton, while rulers wear hemp and merchants wear wool.

Often, however, worship is performed at shrines and temples, either alone or with the help of priests, who often lead groups of worshippers by reading from the Vedas. A typical temple, or mandir, consists of a sacred shrine, which represents the heart of the worshipper, and a tower, which represents the elevation of the soul to heaven. Gifts that are offered become sacred because of their contact with the gods at temples or shrines, and they come to represent the grace of the divine. Thus, for example, people often make ritual offerings of sacred ash or saffron, which is then distributed so that people can smear it on their foreheads.

Not all worship involves ritual objects. Very often, worship takes the form of a brief private prayer, often said while the person goes about his or her daily business and passes a roadside shrine. Large numbers of these small shrines can be found throughout Hindu countries, each devoted to a personal god or goddess that the individual Hindu has elected to worship. In all cases, prayer is likely to consist of incantation of the sacred aum and other mantras.

The religious rites of Hindus fall into three categories. Nitya rituals, which take place daily, are performed in the home, and focus on family gods and goddesses. Naimittika rituals take place only at certain times of the year, such as festivals. Finally, Kamya rituals are regarded as optional but desirable. Making a pilgrimage is a good example of a Kamya ritual.

Observations and pilgrimages

Some observers describe Hinduism as a religion of "feasts, fasts, and festivals." Indeed, a glance at the Hindu religious calendar reveals a large number of festivals and other religious observances. The dates for these events typically differ from year to year because their dates are based on astronomical events such as the new moon. Two of the most important Hindu holidays are Diwali, the festival of lights, and Navratri, the festival of "nine nights." in which aspects of the Divine Goddess are worshipped. In addition, many Hindu pilgrims attend the Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage that is held four times during a twelve-year cycle.

Diwali, or the festival of lights, can be thought of as somewhat like the West's celebration of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. It is an eighteen-day festival. In 2005 it began on November 1. Diwali is a celebration of the autumn harvest and is dedicated to several gods and goddesses. It also marks the last day of Lord Rama's fourteen-year-long exile, when the people lit thousands of lamps to guide Rama (the ideal man), his wife, and his brother home.

Three goddesses are the focus of the Diwali season. Two days before Diwali, the goddess Lakshmi is celebrated for bringing prosperity, fruitfulness, and peace. The day before Diwali is dedicated to Kali, who provides mental and spiritual strength. Diwali itself celebrates Sarasvati, who provides knowledge and enlightenment.

Diwali is a time of gift-giving and feasting. Hindus cook festival foods, formally worship the goddesses, and watch fireworks. Diwali day itself is marked by a great feast, including sweets. The day after Diwali marks the beginning of the new year and is a celebration of the return of Lord Rama from exile. Again, the day is marked by prayer, feasting, visiting friends and relatives, and fireworks. The second day of the new year is dedicated to the love between sisters and brothers and is based on the legend of a visit Lord Yama, the god of death, made to his sister. In her kindness, the sister asked Yama to spare people from the tortures of hell and to reunite brothers and sisters in their next life if they bathed in the waters of Mathura, India. Hindus believe that the fifth day of the new year is special. According to Hindus this day is auspicious, meaning that any task or project can be undertaken without bad results. So, too, is the eleventh day of the new year, which celebrates Lord Vishnu's ascent to heaven. The Diwali season closes on the twelfth day of the new year, just before the mid-autumn new moon appears.

A second major festival is called Navratri. Once again, the purpose of the festival is to give thanks to the major goddesses of Hinduism over a period of nine nights. Navratri, which literally means nine nights, is celebrated twice each year, once at the start of summer, again at the start of winter. The purpose of Navratri is to celebrate the universal mother, referred to as Durga, who removes unhappiness from life. The festival is divided into three sets of three days each. During the first three days, the universal mother is called on as Durga to help people rid themselves of their defects, impurities, and vices. During the next three days, Lakshmi is celebrated and called on to provide material prosperity. During the final three days, the mother as goddess of wisdom, called Saraswati, is called on to provide success in life.

A third major festival is called Kumbh Mela, or "Urn Festival," possibly the world's largest religious pilgrimage. Kumbh Mela occurs four times every twelve years in the Indian cities of Prayag, Haridwar, Uijain, and Nashik. The dates of Kumbh Mela are determined astrologically, based on the position of the sun, the moon, and Jupiter. Once during the twelve-year cycle, the Maha Kumbh Mela, or "Great Urn Festival," is held at Prayag and is attended by millions of people.

The Kumbh Mela, which features ritual baths on the banks of the cities' rivers, spiritual discussions, singing of devotional aartis or hymns, and mass feeding of holy persons and of the poor, is based on a legend that dates back thousands of years. The legend is that demons and gods agreed to cooperate to make and share amrita manthanam, the nectar of immortality (the Ganga waters). But the demons stole the kumbh, or urn, in which the amrita was held. The gods chased the demons for twelve days and twelve nights, the equivalent of twelve human years. As the two sides fought over the urn, drops of the amrita fell on the four cities. Accordingly, the festival is held at these four cities in a twelve-year cycle. It is believed that the largest gathering of people in history occurred at the Kumbh Mela in Hardiwar in 2004, when 70 million people attended the pilgrimage.

Everyday living

As in many parts of the world, traditional ways in Indian/Hindu culture have been replaced by more Western ways. One example is dress, especially for men. In the twenty-first century most Hindu men wear Western-style clothing, except perhaps on ceremonial occasions. However, the traditional form of dress for Hindu men was the veshti, a long cloth, similar to a sarong, that was wound around the waist and stretched to the ankles. The cotton of the traditional veshti was hand spun, the cloth was hand woven, and the veshti itself was unstitched. The color tended to be saffron, the symbolic color of Hinduism. In the twenty-first century the veshti is commonly worn on everyday occasions only by the men of the city of Jaffna in India as a way of preserving Hindu tradition.

The traditional dress for women is the sari. Historians date the sari back as much as 3,500 years. The sari, like the veshti, consists of a single, long, flowing piece of cloth, draped in such a way that one end forms a skirt and the other covers the shoulders and possibly the head as well. The sari was traditionally made of cotton, but today colorful synthetic fabrics are also used. Many twenty-first century women adopt Western-style dress, but the sari is still a common item of dress among Hindu women. In fact in the twenty-first century the wearing of the sari has undergone a revival.

A woman's wedding sari is a particularly valued item that she preserves for the rest of her life. Tradition holds that the pleats of the sari have to be tucked in so the Vayu, the god of wind, can whisk away evil influences. Colors are likely to emphasize yellow, green, and red, which are festive colors that bring good fortune. In the twenty-first century the wearing of beautiful saris has become something of a fashion statement for Hindu women. Additionally, many Hindu women wear the tilaka, a red spot on the forehead, typically made of sandalwood paste, This spot on the forehead is thought to be the seat of wisdom and concentration. The mark will differ depending on the sect of Hinduism to which the woman belongs. Male Hindu scholars also sometimes wear the tilaka.

Hindu Deities

There are a large number of deities, or gods and goddesses, that Hindus can choose to devote themselves to when they worship and ask for blessings from Brahma, the creator of all things. These deities, in turn, can take several forms, or manifestations. The central deities are the Hindu Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) but there are many more gods and goddesses that also represent important aspects of Hindu beliefs.

Brahma: Part of the Hindu Trinity. Brahma is the God of Creation. He created Earth and the universe. Brahma is usually represented with four heads and four arms. He is often depicted sitting on a lotus.

Devi: The Divine Mother. Devi is the mother of life and is present in all women. She takes many forms, including that of Durga and Kali. Devi is represented with eight arms and holds a sword in one hand.

Ganesh: The God of Knowledge. Ganesh is the son of Shiva and Parvati and is known to remove obstacles and cast blessings. He is shown with an elephant's head, a large belly, and four arms.

Hanuman: Known for his courage and bravery. Hanuman is loyal to Rama and represents devotion and hope. Hanuman is depicted as a monkey and holds a mace (staff) in one hand.

Kali: The Goddess of Destruction. Kali is a dark-skinned goddess with eight hands, usually shown atop the corpse of a demon. She is a form of Parvati.

Krishna: A manifestation of Vishnu, Krishna is a popular figure of worship. Krishna is known for his bravery and fight against evil. He is often depicted in images as playing a flute, sometimes accompanied by his friend Radha.

Lakshmi: The Goddess of Beauty, Prosperity, and Good Fortune. Lakshmi emerged from the Milk Ocean and is married to Vishnu. She has four hands, one of which is always extended in blessing.

Parvati: Also known as Durga or Kali. Parvati is wife to Shiva and is depicted as having eight arms, with either dark or very light skin. When Parvati is shown with dark skin, she is in the form of Kali, the Goddess of Destruction. Parvati is worshipped for having a happy family life.

Rama: Considered to be the ideal man, Rama is the hero of the epic story the Ramayana. He is shown with a bow and arrow or with his wife and brother.

Sarasvati: The Goddess of Knowledge. Sarasvati is Brahma's wife and holds the powers of speech, learning, and wisdom. She is shown with four hands and dressed in white.

Shiva: The destroyer god of the Hindu Trinity. Shiva has the power to both create and destroy life. He has long hair, through which the waters of the Ganges River flow, and a serpent is coiled around his neck.

Vishnu: The preserver god of the Hindu Trinity. Vishnu preserves the universe and existence. He is shown with four hands and dark blue skin.

Because Hinduism is as much a way of life as it is a religion, its principles and beliefs can be found in everyday life. The core of Hinduism's influence on everyday living is expressed by the notion of karma. Hindus believe that the effects of their deeds can have major consequences for their life after death. Furthermore, Hindus recognize three types of karma that are the results of actions: The first is Sanchita Karma, which is accumulated through previous births. The second is Prarabdha Karma, referring to the portion of previous karma that accounts for the nature of the current birth; it cannot be changed. Finally, Kriyamani or Agami Karma (sometimes called Vartamana Karma) is the karma being accumulated in the present that will affect future births, much like an insurance policy for the future.

In India, another feature of Hindu life is the caste system. The caste system tends to be misunderstood in the West. For many Westerners, "caste" is thought of as similar to "social class," but this comparison is only partly true. Caste is fundamentally a sense of the duties that one owes to society. Essentially, there are four main castes, although there are numerous subcastes, and the details of caste can differ from region to region. The four major castes are Brahmins, consisting of priests, teachers, and intellectuals; Ksatriyas, or warriors and rulers; Vaisyas, or merchants and landowners; and Sudras, or laborers and farmers. There is a fifth caste, the "untouchables," who perform "unclean" work such as the removal of waste and of dead animals. Religious justification for the caste system is found in the Bhagavad Gita. Many Hindus have spoken out against the caste system, wanting to see it play less of a role in social relations. The concept of "untouchability" was abolished by Article 17 of the Indian constitution, which was passed by the Indian parliament in 1949 and took effect in 1950.

The ancient caste system has collided with modern life in the Indian constitution. The Indian constitution directly addresses individual rights, such as the right to equality, the right to freedom, the right to be free of exploitation (for example, forced labor), the right to freedom of religion, the right to property, cultural and educational rights, and others. This notion of individual rights, though, clashes with traditional emphasis on duties. Many Hindus accept the concept of individual rights and seek justification for them in Hindu scripture. They conclude that two principles exist at the same time: that the individual has rights because others have duties, and others have duties because the individual has rights. The caste system becomes less a system of rights available to members of a caste and more a system of duties that a member of a particular caste is obligated to perform for others.

This modern view of castes in terms of the duties individuals owe to society relates directly to beliefs fostered by Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948), the Mahatma ("Great Soul"). Gandhi fought for what he felt were basic national needs for his country: freedom from the British colonial rulers, equality for women, removal of persecution of the untouchable caste, and unity between Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi believed it was irrational to use violence to form a peaceful society, so he protested passively and nonviolently for what he believed. The nonviolent protests and sit-ins that were led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s were learned from the tactics of Gandhi's passive resistance.

One final characteristic of Hinduism should be noted: Most Hindus are strict vegetarians. A number of reasons are given for vegetarianism. One is that killing any creature for meat would violate dharma, or the need for righteousness in one's personal life. Another is that killing animals would create bad karma because it is an act of violence. Many Hindus also avoid eating meat for health reasons. Gandhi believed that one should be a vegetarian by choice rather than by religious obligation or vow. He felt it was the right thing to do, to cause no harm to another living thing (ahimsa). Some Hindus believe as he did in causing no harm, but eat prepared meat because they feel they have not directly caused harm to the animal.

Hinduism's influences

Because it reflects an ancient culture, Hinduism has made its mark in such areas as law, medicine, and the arts. Hindu law was compiled more than two thousand years ago in a book titled Dharmasastras. The Arthasastra, or "Treatise on the Good," written in about the third century bce, was a discourse on law and social obligations that still influences Hindu society in India. Similarly, medical research dates back more than two thousand years with medical treatises written by Charaka and Sushruta. Yet it is in the area of literature that Hindu culture has had its greatest impact. Some of the world's oldest literature is written in Sanskrit, and the Vedas, especially the Rig Veda, are among the world's oldest texts. before the common era, Hinduism gave rise to two of the world's great epic poems, the Mahabharata (the world's longest epic poem, written sometime around 300 bce) and the Ramayana (first written down in about 200 bce).

Namaste

"Namaste" is used to greet friends and to pay respect to elders, holy people, and temple deities. While saying "namaste," one places the two palms of the hand together and bows to the one being greeted. This greeting shows respect and welcome and means, "The God in me greets the God in you; the Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you." This is an acknowledgement of the Hindu belief of the presence of God in everything.

The position of the joined hands during namaste is called the anjali mudra, or reverence gesture. A mudra is a positioning of the hands intended to express certain energies or thoughts. The alignment of the fingers of each hand represents a symbolic union between karma and knowledge and reminds one to think and act properly. When greeting someone with the anjali mudra, one places the hands before the chest to greet a friend or other equal, at eye level when greeting a guru, and above the head when making a greeting to God.

This literary tradition continued in the centuries that followed. Around the year 150 the Tamil Sangam, an academy of philosophers and poets, was founded. The Sangam led a resurgence in the writing of poetry and plays, many of them written in Sanskrit. In the Medieval period Hindu poets, playwrights, philosophers, and logicians produced an outpouring of work, and Hinduism produced two of its greatest poets: the Princess Mirabai (1498–1546) and Kabir (1440–1518). Meanwhile, handbooks written in Sanskrit laid out rules for the production of Hindu statues, temples, and paintings.

Gandhi's peaceful protest movement

The method of peaceful protest by spiritual and national leader Gandhi was developed in large part from Hindu teachings of respect for life and all living beings. Gandhi's protest methods inspired people around the world to try to follow in his footsteps and bring about change in a peaceful manner. His methods of peaceful social action are still practiced around the world in the early twenty-first century.

Gandhi based his methods of social action on principles he called satyagraha, which include courage, nonviolence, and truth. This method hinges on the belief that the way an individual behaves is more important than what he achieves, or the end result. By following satyagraha, Gandhi formulated his ideas for nonviolent resistance. These forms of resistance often included peaceful protests, marches, fasting, or refusal to cooperate with a law. Gandhi would also compromise with his opponents to avoid violence and to reach a peaceful conclusion. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with Gandhi's decision to compromise, and he was assassinated in 1948 by a fanatical Hindu for negotiating with Muslims.

Hinduism's spread Westward

Gandhi was not the first Hindu to bring the world's attention to India and Hinduism. At the end of the nineteenth century, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) captured the attention of the western world when he spoke at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Illinois. Vivekananda captivated the audience with his talk of Hinduism and support for religious tolerance. Shortly after his speech, Vivekananda moved to the United States to continue to spread his message of love and tolerance in the western world. He influenced many and encouraged greater understanding of people across all religions.

In 1900, shortly after Swami Vivekananda gave his speech in Chicago, there were approximately 1,700 Hindus in the United States. By the early twenty-first century, that number had grown to around 2 million. There are many Hindu centers and temples operating in the West (the countries of Europe and the Americas). In 1994, in the United States alone, there were more than 800 temples open. Hundreds of temples are also available to Hindus in Europe.

The growing influence of yoga

As more Hindus from India ventured west, and as those in the west ventured to India, more than people and their ideas came to be exchanged. Yoga, most commonly known in the West as a practice in which one puts one's body though a series of physical poses to attain greater harmony between body and mind, is a practice that has become incorporated into the lifestyles of many non-Hindus in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Many people practice yoga purely for its physical benefits. It strengthens and tones the body. Many more, however, gain both physical and spiritual benefits from the practice.

The number of people practicing and teaching yoga in the West continues to rise dramatically. In a 2005 study conducted by the North American Studio Alliance (NAMASTA), an organization for mind-body professionals, the number of yoga practitioners in North America has grown from 28 million in late 2003 to 30 million. NAMASTA also estimates the number of yoga teachers in North America to be 70,000. The appeal of yoga, which means "union," for many in the West is that it allows for individual practitioners to focus on any one of its many benefits, whether spiritual, physical, or psychological. Serious yoga students will venture to India to learn directly from Indian yoga teachers, such as Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915–), or seek out Indian yoga teachers who have come to teach yoga in the West, such as B. K. S. Iyengar (1918–).

The science of Ayurveda

Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term meaning, "The Science of Life." Ayurveda is an ancient science that encourages health and well-being through creating a balance between one's lifestyle, body, and diet. It provides instruction on understanding one's unique constitution (health) and how to maintain or reestablish this balance. Ayurveda has been practiced in India for more than 5,000 years.

Ayurveda recognizes three main categories of energy, which are a combination of the five elements of space, air, fire, water, and earth. These are present in everyone and everything. The Rig Veda, a Hindu holy text, discusses these three energies and how to use herbs and other methods to keep these energies in balance and live a longer, healthier life. The three energies are called doshas. According to Ayurveda, the changing levels of the doshas in a person's body can affect how he or she feels. Among the methods used to keep energies in harmony are food, exercise, colors, scents, and yoga. The three doshas are:

vata, the energy of movement. The elements of vata are air and space. People with a lot of vata may be very active and creative. Too much activity or too much dry food can unbalance vata.

pitta, the energy of digestion. The elements of pitta are fire and water. People with dominant pitta enjoy challenges and like to lead. To keep pitta in balance, a person should eat cool, fresh foods.

kapha, the energy of lubrication or structure. Kapha is the energy of the earth and water. Kapha personalities like to explore one subject very deeply and dislike change. Heavy foods can imbalance kapha, but spicy foods and physical activity can keep kapha steady.

Although everyone and everything has characteristics of all three doshas, one is usually dominant in a person. Understanding Ayurveda and how one's dominant energy works with the other energies is the key to maintaining the right body and mind balance. It is intended to be a preventative system of medicine, meaning that by practicing it, a person can avoid developing medical problems.

Current challenges

The chief issue that contemporary Hinduism faces in India concerns whether India will remain a secular state (that is, a state that does not formally incorporate a particular religion) or become more of a Hindu state. The secular constitution of 1949, as a result of Gandhi's work, attempted to create a nation in which the rights of minority religions, as well as members of lower castes, would be protected. Many Indians, however, would like the nation to become officially a Hindu state. This movement informally is called "saffronization," referring to the color saffron, the symbolic color of Hinduism. At its extreme, this movement has led to the persecution of minority Christians, Muslims, and other groups in India.

For More Information

BOOKS

Cole, Owen, and Hemant Kanitkar. Teach Yourself Hinduism. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Flood, Gavin D. An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Knott, Kim. Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

WEB SITES

Das, Subhamoy. "Hinduism." About.com. http://hinduism.about.com (accessed on June 14, 2006).

"Hinduism." Internet Sacred Text Archive. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin (accessed on June 14, 2006).

"Hinduism: A General Introduction." ReligiousTolerance.org. http://www.religioustolerance.org/hinduism2.htm (accessed on June 14, 2006).

Hinduism

views updated May 23 2018

Hinduism

The study of Hinduism

Hinduism and the social order

Dominant theological ideas of Hinduism

Sectarianism

Nonsectarian Hinduism

Hinduism and the polity

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hindus are found living in many parts of the world, but the vast majority of them (approximately 376.5 million) are concentrated in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Of this population, approximately 366.5 million are in India and ten million in Pakistan. Hindus are also found in the Himalayan states of Nepal (the only contemporary Hindu state), Sikkim, and Bhutan; in Burma, Ceylon, Malaysia, and other countries of south east Asia; and in east and south Africa, the Carib bean islands, Guyana (British Guiana), Fiji, and the United Kingdom.

The study of Hinduism

The doctrines of Hinduism, unlike those of Christianity and Islam, are not embodied in any one sacred book, nor does Hinduism have a single historical founder. There are not one but innumerable gods, and it is not essential to believe in the existence of God in order to be a Hindu. Hinduism is rich in contradictions, there being no particular beliefs or institutions that are common to all Hindus. Every belief considered basic to Hinduism has been rejected by one Hindu group or another.

A major problem in the study of Hinduism, as in that of any world religion, is to understand the interaction between the theological and popular levels. There is a vast body of sacred literature in Hinduism, including the Vedas, Brahmanas, Upan-isads, Vedāngas, Dharmaśāstras, Nibandhas, Purānas, Itihāsas, Darsanas, Āgamas, and Tantras. These texts contain elaborate and abstract philosophies and theologies, mythologies, manuals for the performance of sacrifices and other sacred rites in temples and homes, and codes of conduct for daily life. Generally speaking, until recently Indian and foreign scholars concentrated on the literature, while the description of actual institutions, rites, and beliefs was left to missionaries, travelers, and administrators. It is only in the last twenty years that bibliocentricism has been replaced by a more rounded view of Hinduism and the relation between the texts and actual behavior.

The social scientist’s concern for understanding any religion in its social context is likely to be satisfied more for the modern than for the earlier periods of history. Source materials are almost entirely lacking for the study of the history of popular Hinduism; even in the study of the history of literary Hinduism, data are not available for the reconstruction of the social context. For example, the date, provenance, and authorship of texts are not certain. And finally, the student of contemporary Hinduism is faced with the problem that the systematic reconstruction of Indian history, which began with the coming of the British, has brought to light material that has since become an active part of the Hindu religion. In the reinterpretation of Hinduism that has been occurring since the nineteenth century, the philosophical and literary levels have been emphasized, to the neglect of actual institutions, rites, and beliefs.

Hinduism and the social order

Hinduism, lacking a centralized church, is so inextricably entangled with Hindu society that it is very difficult to say where one ends and the other begins. This is particularly true of caste, which according to creation beliefs expressed in the Rg Veda has a divine origin. The four varnas, or caste orders, emerged from the limbs of primeval man, who is a victim in the divine sacrifice that produced the cosmos. The brāhmans emerged from his mouth, ksatriyas from his arms, the vaiśyas from his thighs, and the śūldras from his feet. (The untouchables are not mentioned in the hymn.) There are in reality not four but innumerable castes, called jātis, each of which claims to belong to one of the four varnas. When the Hindu sacred or legal texts discuss caste, it is mostly varna that they have in view and very rarely jāti.

Certain ideas regarding pollution and purity are cardinal in Hinduism, although there are differences among the various castes in the strictness with which rules deriving from these ideas are adhered to and the degree of elaboration found in behavior governed by them. Intercaste relations are generally defined by ideas of pollution. Normally, each caste is endogamous and complete commensality prevails only within it. Thus, there are many kinds of restrictions between castes— on the free acceptance of food and drink, on intermarriage and sex relations, on touching or going near a member of another caste, etc.—and they are expressed in terms of pollution. This means that failure to observe the rules makes the uppercaste person impure, and he has to perform a purificatory rite, simple or elaborate, according to the seriousness of the violation.

While caste is central, it does not entirely determine Hindu religious behavior. There are other aspects of the social structure that embody, religious behavior. The village community and the family also function as cult groups. There are deities—usually goddesses—in every village who, if suitably propitiated, keep out epidemics and drought and look after the villagers. There is an elaborate complex of rites de passage, including wedding rituals and funeral rites that may take several days to perform. Calendrical festivals and vratas, or ritual austerities carried out for specific periods to attain particular ends (e.g., birth of a son), consume a good part of people’s energies, time, and money.

It is important to demarcate those aspects of religious behavior that are affected by caste from those that are not. The relation between sect and caste, in particular, offers a fruitful area for research.

Dominant theological ideas of Hinduism

Hinduism does not have a body of clearly defined dogma, but some theological ideas may be considered basic. And while the many sects and schools have taken different standpoints on theological issues, the issues themselves are common to most. Since the time of the Upanisads, which laid the foundations of Hindu philosophical thinking, certain concepts recur again and again. A major issue has been the nature of Brahman (universal soul) and its relation with Ātman (the individual soul). One view is concerned only with this dichotomy, does not posit the existence of God, and considers Brahman as absolute and attributeless. (There was also the Chārv̄ka school, which was atheistic and hedonistic.) Most other views, however, recognize the existence of God and consider the issue of his relation with Brahman, on the one hand, and Ātman, on the other. The Ātman is considered to be indestructible and passes through an endless migration, or series of incarnations. The character of any incarnation, human, animal, or superhuman, is influenced by karma, the net balance of good and bad deeds in previous births. Goodness or badness is defined by reference to dharma. The reward for a saintly life is moksa, which releases the individual from the chain of births and deaths and brings him into contact with God.

The ideas of karma, dharma, and moksa are intimately related to the caste system. The Dharmasutra states that if a man does good deeds, he will be reborn in a high caste and well endowed, while if he does sinful acts, he will be reborn in a low caste or even as an animal. Dharma is thus identified with the duties of one’s caste, and birth in a particular caste becomes an index of the soul’s progress toward liberation.

The nature of moksa and how to achieve it are major issues in Hindu theology. The main ways of achieving moksa are through knowledge, deeds, and love and devotion toward God. Generally, the way of knowledge requires an individual to renounce the world, including caste and family, and lead the life of an ascetic. This way has been followed by only a few. It was the Bhagavad Gita that first emphasized the way of works and devotion and thus brought liberation within reach of the “man-in-the-world,” including women and the lower castes. The most popular form of devotion, however, is the worship of one’s chosen god according to tradition. In the last hundred years the Bhagavad Gita has been reinterpreted by Indian political leaders, including Gandhi and B. G. Tilak, to provide the basis for a life devoted to altruistic action.

Discussion of these issues by theologians has been in Sanskrit and in the context of ideas developed in logic, metaphysics, astronomy, grammar, literature, law, and other branches of traditional learning. The basic theological positions have, however, reached the common people through myths and stories narrated in local languages. How influential these ideas were and the nature of their relation to strictly local or sectional ideas and beliefs are still subjects for research (see, in this connection, Srinivas 1952, p. 227).

Sanskritic deities. Those deities whose attributes and modes of worship are described in mythological, liturgical, and other texts may be called Sanskritic. The Vedic pantheon reflects the syncretism that resulted from the conquest by nomadic Indo-European Aryans of the ancient urbanized civilizations of the Indus Valley and a continuing contact with the aboriginal tribal peoples of the subcontinent. Most of the deities, major and minor, are nature gods: Indra, the most prominent of all, is the sky god; Agni, the fire god; Varuna, the water god; Süryā, the sun god; and so on. Visnu, who later became a high god, began as only a minor figure, a mere aspect of the sun god. The Vedic god of thunder, Rudra, was at first associated with Siva, who eventually became the dominant partner. The chief Vedic gods were gradually transformed into the trinity of Brahma, the creator; Visnu, the protector; and Siva, the destroyer. Brahma does not appear in the Vedas but seems to have developed during the period of the Brāhmanas. His importance subsequently declined, and nowadays Visnu and Siva are the two most important gods.

Every major deity in Hinduism has many forms, and around each form there is a myth. Visnu has a number of incarnations, the chief of which are Rāma (man), Krishna (man), Narasimha (manlion), and Varaha (boar). The idea behind the many forms is that God periodically allows himself to be reborn on earth, to overcome evil and restore righteousness. In addition to incarnations, Visnu has one thousand names, according to the Mahābhārata, and many more according to other texts. Ramā and Krishna, originally incarnations of Visnu, became important gods in themselves, each with many forms and names. The idea of incarnation is not associated with Śiva, but he, too, has many names. In addition, each deity or each form of a deity has a wife, who is usually worshiped along with her husband.

Śakti, the personification of the female principle in the creation of the universe, occupies almost as important a place in the Hindu pantheon as Visnu and Śiva. In the Śakti cult a female deity is sometimes worshiped independently of association with a male deity, but when a male deity alone is worshiped, generally he is some form of Śiva rather than of Visnu. Further, Skanda and Ganeśa, the sons of Śiva, and Hanumant, the chief of the monkey army of Rāma, are also popular deities. The birds and animals on which the gods sit are called vahanas (“vehicles”) and are worshiped. The sun, moon, stars, fire, mountains, lakes, animals, snakes, trees, and plants continue to be objects of worship. Frequently river deities are anthropomorphized. For example, Ganga, or Ganges, is a form of the goddess Pārvatī, and many smaller rivers are be lieved to be manifestations of Ganga. The cobra cult in southern India is identified with Skanda. There are also deities symbolizing the synthesis of different deities, such as the three-headed Trimūrti and Dattatreya, representing the unity of Brahmā, Visnu and S̄iva. The union of S̄iva and Visnu is expressed in the composite god Harihara; Ardhanārīśvara represents an attempt to symbolize the unity of S̄iva and Pārvatī.

The henotheistic tendency is important in Hindu mythology and ritual: the deity who is being wor shiped is praised above all others. Pantheism prevails, but all deities, from Visnu or Śiva to the lowest village deity, are considered to be manifestations of the same god. These ideas have enabled Hinduism to absorb local cults and deities and even accept all other religions as true.

A Hindu temple embodies the henotheistic idea. There is, accordingly, one principal deity, from whom a temple derives its name and whose image occupies a prominent place in the temple, and there are also a few minor deities, represented by smaller images in different parts of the temple. Thus, in a Sivá temple Sivá would be the principal deity, and PārvatI, Ganesá, and the bull Nandi would be minor deities; whereas in a Sákti temple, Sákti would be the principal deity and Sivá would be one of the minor deities. Not all Hindu deities are associated with temples, however. Some of the Vedic deities, such as Varuna and Agni, are invoked mostly during sacrifices, while Brahmā and Sūrya seem to have had temples in the past but do not have them nowadays. Some deities (e.g., Ganeśa) have temples only in certain regions.

Sectarianism

Like other religions, Hinduism has given birth to many sects in the course of its history, and it is not always easy to say whether a sect is within the Hindu fold or outside. Buddhism and Jainism had emerged as distinct sects by about the fifth century B.C., and both spread over wide areas, Buddhism, in particular, spreading over almost the entire country. But over the centuries their influence declined, and Buddhism had almost entirely disappeared from the country of its origin by about a.d. 1000. It is only in recent years that large numbers of Untouchables, in particular the Mahar of Maharashtra, became converted to Buddhism in protest against the indignities they were subjected to under the caste system. There is a sizable Jain population in India today, and Jains are very similar to Hindus. Not only are there castes among them, but some trading castes of Gujarat̄ have Jain and Hindu subdivisions, and marriage occurs across sect lines. Islam has presented a serious challenge to Hinduism. There are about 129.5 million Muslims (nearly 47 million in India and 82.5 million in Pakistan) in the subcontinent. While a small proportion of them came from the Middle East, the majority were converts from among the Hindus. They have a caste system in some ways similar to that of the Hindus, and the converts have retained many Hindu practices —so much so that in the case of some groups it is even now extremely difficult to say whether they are Hindu or Muslim. There are also sects (Kablrpanthi, Sikhism) and cults that combine both Hindu and Muslim traits. One of them, Sikhism, has claimed to be a distinct religion, but this does not mean that Sikhs do not have anything in common with Hindus. The Sikhs are divided into castes, with even an Untouchable division, and have veneration for Hindu holy places. Until recently, in many families in rural Punjab one son would become a Sikh while the others remained Hindu. Many Hindu castes became Sikhs in an effort to improve their status. The Pir̄na sect in Gujarat̄ and the recent Saibaba cult have both Hindu and Muslim followers. In its later phase the Bhakti movement was influenced by Sufism.

At the present time there are a very large number of sects, a few major and many minor. Each sect has a founder, a cult, a body of doctrine, and a social organization of its own.

In most sects one deity is considered to be supreme and is identified with the supreme Brah man. While Visnu, Sivá, and Śakti are the most important nuclei for the formation of sects, they are not, however, the only nuclei, sects having also arisen around Suryā, Ganesá, and Dattatreya. It is wrong to speak of a single, homogeneous sect associated with any of these deities. The many Vaisnavite sects, for example, are distinguished from each other, first, by the particular form of Visnu and his consort that they worship; and second, where the same form and consort are worshiped, by differences in the mode of worship and body of theological doctrine; and finally, by their internal organization. There are elaborate rules regarding the making of idols, and there is a systematized iconography. The Śrī-Vaisnavas worship Visnu and his consort Laksmī; the Madhvas worship Krishna but not R̄dhā; the Nim-barkas, Vallabhacharis, and Chaitanyaites worship both Krishna and Rādhā but differ in several other respects; and the Rāmanandis worship only Rāma and his associates. Comparable differences exist among Śivá and Śakti sects.

Each sect recognizes several minor deities, in cluding its chief deity’s spouse, but they rarely include the entire Hindu pantheon. In each sect the founder and the things associated with him are objects of special veneration. Each sect has an elaborate complex of rituals for temple and domestic worship and for life-cycle ceremonies. It has its own specially emphasized festivals and sacrifices and its own identifying word or sentence of great religious potency. A sect mark put on the forehead easily distinguishes a member of one sect from that of another.

The major sects are known for their distinctive philosophical standpoints, as for example, the pure monism of the Smartas, the qualified monism of the Sri-Vaisnavas, and the dualism of the Madhvas. Minor sects do not have elaborate philosophies, although they do have their own special ideas and beliefs. While the philosophical and ethical position of a sect is important in understanding its religious practices, other elements are influential.

Each sect has not only its own sacred literature, written by its founder and other leaders, but also a selective attitude toward the great texts of Hinduism.

Another major problem in the study of sects is understanding the nature of their relation to ascet icism. Sects composed entirely of ascetics repre sent a bizarre element in Hinduism. The members of these sects go about scantily clothed, smear their bodies with funeral ashes, wear long, matted hair, and perform a number of physical feats. They maintain monasteries (akhādas, literally “gymnasiums”), where they are reputed to carry on occult practices, and they also manage temples, which enable them to keep in touch with the masses and recruit members.

Sects composed entirely of householders and those consisting of both ascetics and householders are the most numerous and popular. The ascetics in the latter sects are grouped into different mon asteries, each having its own core of hereditary adherents and its corporate property in temples, land, etc. Many ascetics are found to be involved in intersectarian rivalry and politics. When a sect is composed only of householders, the patrilineal descendants of the founder preside over the sect.

There are many small sects, whose membership is confined to a single linguistic region or to a small area within a linguistic region, but the membership of the major sects cuts across language barriers. In the case of a major sect, it is necessary to distinguish between areas with a high concen tration of its members and areas with relatively few members. Thus, while the majority of the Madhvas are found in southern India, there are small groups of them in Gujarat̄, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar̄, and Bengal. While the majority of Valla bhacharis are found in Gujarat̄ and Rājasthān, there are small groups of them all over northern, western, and eastern India. Another noteworthy feature is that, while the majority of the members, temples, and monasteries of a sect may be found in one part of the country, it may have a temple or a monastery in each of the major pilgrim centers in the country. The founder of every major sect traveled about the country, first in search of knowledge, then to win dialectical battles, and finally, to give discourses and recruit followers. Frequently the founder and his followers came from different regions. There were centers of religious learning in different areas, and there was a convergence of schools of learning at each center; finally the centers were woven into networks. Some of these centers, such as Banāras, Vrindāban, and Śrīrangam, enjoyed high prestige, and a scholar’s victory in religious disputation may have taken place at the court of the king or at a religious fair.

Normally, membership in a sect, unlike that in a caste, is not hereditary but comes through initiation. And there is hardly any sect that is composed of only one jāti. Even the Lingāyat sect of the Kannada region, which is commonly regarded as a caste, is composed of a number of jātis, or endog-amous units. And even when a whole caste is included in a single sect, membership in the sect is not automatic but by initiation. Sometimes the members of a caste will be distributed among more than one sect, and some may not belong to any sect at all. Some castes in Gujarat̄ contain not only members of two or three Hindu sects but also Jains. Sometimes the members of a single family have different sectarian affiliations. The rise and fall of various sects over the centuries indicates that religious positions were not always determined by birth.

No sect recruits members from all castes. Untouchables are very rarely admitted into sects including the high castes; even a sect admitting “touchable” castes would cover only a certain span in the caste hierarchy. Generally speaking, Un touchables have produced their own sects. The older sects recruited brāhmans and higher non-brāhmans but not lower non-brāhmans, and there are sects founded by non-brāhmans that do not include brāhmans. Even though a sect includes members from more than one caste, caste distinctions are not entirely obliterated.

Nonsectarian Hinduism

Nonsectarian Hinduism is found both in towns and villages; it is largely Sanskritic in towns and non-Sanskritic in villages.

Non-Sanskritic Hinduism is, however, an ideal type and has the following characteristics: the deities have non-Sanskritic names and oral myths attached to them; they are represented by unhewn stones or crude images; the modes of worship are local and do not follow any liturgy; offerings in clude meat and liquor, and the priests, or shamans, as well as the devotees, are generally drawn from the lower castes. All these conditions rarely occur simultaneously, and it is more common for the Sanskritic and non-Sanskritic elements to be mixed in varying proportions. Thus, a deity’s name may be a corrupt form of a Sanskritic name or a compound of a Sanskritic and a non-Sanskritic name. Usually village goddesses are regarded as manifestations of ParvatI, and village gods of Sivá. Such identification makes possible the acquisition of Sanskritic characteristics by non-Sanskritic deities, and it is not unknown for a deity with a single name to be worshiped according to non-Sanskritic modes in one village and Sanskritic modes in another. In one village the deity’s image may be housed in a fine temple, while in another it is embedded in the earth at the foot of a tree. Fre quently, there are institutionalized links between a village deity and the pilgrim center of the San skritic deity with which he is identified.

There are also temples to Sanskritic deities, where brāhmans are priests, the offerings vege tarian, and the mode of worship Sanskritic. But on certain occasions, such as the deity’s festival, the brahman withdraws and animals are sacrificially decapitated by a non-brahman. The brahman priest re-enters the temple only after purifying it. In temples where non-brāhmans are priests, brah mans may propitiate such a deity during an epi demic or other disaster. In exceptional situations a brahman might even make an offering of a fowl to a non-Sanskritic deity through a non-brahman friend.

It is important to note that the attitude of brāhmans and other high castes toward non-Sanskritic deities is not fixed and unalterable. There are different types of brāhmans, high as well as low, and learned as well as ignorant. (Among the Smarta brāhmans of Tamilnad, the priests, Kurukkals, are regarded as lower than other brāhmans. In Gujarat̄, the priestly Tapodhan brāhmans are rated very low indeed.) A learned brahman may have to oblige his powerful non-brahman patrons by manufacturing a myth in Sanskrit for one of their deities. Hindu mythology has grown in this manner (see the Appendix on “The Kaveri Myth” in Srinivas 1952, pp. 241-246).

A temple is sectarian only when it is part of a sectarian organization. In this sense a large ma jority of Hindu temples, including some of the biggest, are nonsectarian. Many of these are extremely wealthy, having vast land estates, large amounts of jewelry and precious metals, and also a considerable income from offerings by devotees. They employ many people and have an elaborate and complex body of ritual, calendrical festivals, special pūjās, etc. Although nonsectarian, these temples are subject to regional sectarian influ ences. For example, the modes of worship in non-sectarian temples of Krishna in Gujarat̄ are influ enced by the modes of worship prevalent in Krishna temples of the dominant Vallabhachari sect of the area.

In the majority of temples dedicated to San-skritic deities, the priests are brāhmans; only vege tarian and nonalcoholic offerings are made, and the rituals are conducted according to a liturgical text. Even in some Sivá temples, where priests are Lingayats (southern India) or Gosais (Gujarat̄), they perform liturgical rituals and make only vegetarian and nonalcoholic offerings. In many Sákti temples, particularly those influenced by the left-hand Sákti sects, the deity is worshiped according to the Tantric texts and offerings of meat and liquor are made. However, although Sanskritization has had a widespread effect, some temples continue to sacrifice animals and make liquor offerings on certain occasions. In Bengal, Bihar̄, and Assam blood sacrifice still remains a normal mode of worship.

Nonsectarian Hindus generally worship many deities, although there are some who are devotees of a single deity, sometimes a deity in a particular temple. It is common to see a devout Hindu going on a daily round of the principal temples in a village or in a ward of a city. They observe the festivals of Sivá, Visnu, and others, and they go on pilgrimages to great shrines all over the country.

Hinduism and the polity

Devout Hindus regarded their king as a repre sentative of God on earth. This belief was common to all, including brāhmans, who themselves claimed to be gods on earth. The social order, as repre sented by the caste system, was also believed to be divinely created. The rules of the social and moral order were subsumed under the ethicoreligious concept of dharma. In his role as the guardian of dharma, the king had to maintain the caste system. This meant that the idea of inequality expressed in the caste system had the king’s support and sanction. Different castes had different rights, duties, and privileges, and punishment had to take into account the caste of the offender and that of the victim. The disabilities traditionally imposed on untouchables also had the king’s sanction. His powers included the right to promote or demote individual castes, and he was the final court of appeal in any matter pertaining to caste. This power was so integral to kingship that it was exercised by the Mughal rulers and also by the British in their very early days in India.

It is important to remember that the king had this power, inasmuch as uncritical reliance on the sacred literature conveys the impression that the brāhmans were all-powerful and that kings only carried out their decisions. The privileges enjoyed by brāhmans and religious personages were in fact conferred on them by the king, and they could be withdrawn. As recently as 1892, in the princely state of Mysore, the government passed an order that all nominations to the headship of monasteries must have the prior approval of the maharaja, and failure to obtain this approval would involve the retraction of grants of land and money made by the state (Smith 1963, pp. 302-303). A swāmī, or head of a monastery, is revered, and the maharaja even performs the ritual of washing the feet of some swāmīs; but he also has the power to determine who becomes a swāmī.

The Hindu king had the same beliefs and values and took part in the same ceremonies as his peo ple, although the manner of his celebrating a festival or his devotion to a particular deity or temple often set the religious style of the kingdom. Temples favored by royalty (e.g., Tirupati, Tanjore, and Madurai) developed into great pilgrimage centers. They were generously endowed with land and jewelry; famous sculptors were invited to lavish their skill on them; and great musicians sang there on certain occasions. The conversion of a prince to a sect was an important event in its history, and a large number of people followed their king into the new faith. And while there is a tradition of tolerance in Hinduism, discrimination against the members of a rival sect was not unknown.

It is clear that no conceptual separation between the state and the church was possible in the Hindu system of ideas. Nor was the need for such a distinction very necessary. First, Hinduism did not possess a powerful, centralized church, with a sin gle pontiff and a hierarchy of officials, which would constitute a potential threat to kingly su premacy. Second, the castewise division of functions confined brāhmans to the religious realm, while the ksatriyas had the political realm to themselves. That a separation between the two did not always obtain should not surprise us. In fact, the development of sacrifice during the late Vedic period marked an increase in brahman power and arrogance, and Buddhism and Jainism both ap pealed to ksatriyas and vaiśyas, partly because of their rejection of brahman pretensions (Ghurye 1932, pp. 65, 69, 70, in 1950 edition). Speaking generally, it was not so much the throne that attracted brāhmans as the power behind it.

Hinduism has a tradition of tolerance, and Hindu rulers in general seem to have been hos pitable to different sects and religions. Hindu tolerance is, however, related to the caste system in several ways. First, each caste has its own style of life, and from childhood onward people accept diversity as a basis for relationship. Second, caste, along with village and extended kin groups, ensured conformity in practice, and a stable society could afford to give its members intellectual free dom. The other source of such freedom was the institution of the holy man, who ritually renounced the world—his relatives even performed funeral rites for him at his initiation into the order—and who could then preach as he wished. Max Weber has rightly said, “The freedom of thought in ancient India was so considerable as to find no parallel in the West before the most recent age” (quoted in Smith 1963, p. 62).

Hindu tolerance of other religions and its hospitality to new ideas provided a favorable soil for the eventual declaration of India as a secular state. There were, however, other tendencies, and certain nineteenth-century attempts (e.g., the Arya Samaj) to purge Hinduism of its many evils by advocating a return to the Vedas contained frankly revivalist elements. Moreover, Indian nationalism also expressed itself occasionally in the Hindu idiom, and this had the effect of alienating the Muslims. But during British rule there emerged a highly westernized Hindu elite, which, while rooted in the country and its traditions, was committed to independence, democracy, egalitarianism, and secularism. It is this elite that not only declared India a secular state but also attempted wholeheartedly to establish the principle of the equality of man.

Hinduism and economic development. Weber (1921) thought that the Hindu belief in the trans migration of the soul and the related doctrines of karma and dharma, seen in the context of caste, produced an irrational, otherworldly social ethic that prevented the development of industrial capi talism. Weber’s thesis has gained wide popularity, and Hinduism is now believed to be one of the major obstacles in India’s economic development. This belief, however, rests on a partial view of Hinduism. Weber himself noted a few elements of a “rational” ethic in Hinduism—the existence of this-worldly asceticism and positive economic motivation among Jains, Lingāyats, and Madhvas, and an occupational ethic among merchants and arti sans. There are elements in Hinduism favorable to economic development (Singer et al. 1958; Lambert & Hoselitz 1963). The very ascetics whom Weber considered disseminators of irrational and otherworldly ideas among the masses are often the heads of large and wealthy monasteries and temples, the management of which calls for considerable administrative ability.

Hindu reform and modernization. Hinduism has, in the course of its long history, undergone many and radical changes, and several diverse forces have contributed to making Hinduism what it is today. The establishment of the Pax Britannica released many new forces, affecting Hinduism at every point. The disruption by the British of some of the social institutions of Hinduism, such as caste, untouchability, satī, human sacrifice, female infanticide, infant marriage, etc., made it clear to the orthodox that the state could use its power to alter their religious institutions. European missionaries who came to India for evangelical pur poses sharply criticized Hinduism, and Hindus were made to realize poignantly that some influential outsiders thought that everything was wrong with their religion. Reformist Hindus—many of whom had attended mission schools—could not help remembering missionary criticisms of their religion, and in creating institutions to bring about changes in their society, they naturally emulated the organizations and work of their critics. From a long-term point of view the most important element in the reinterpretation and reformulation of Hinduism was the emergence of a westernized Indian elite, which eventually took over power from the British and which used that power to introduce fundamental changes, such as the abolition of untouchability, the legalization of inter-caste marriage, widow marriage, and divorce, and the enforcement of monogamy. It is this elite that after a century and a half of Western influence declared India to be a secular state. Secularism does not mean that evil social institutions will be allowed to flourish, just as the principle of equality has not prevented the state from giving a variety of special privileges to Scheduled Castes and Tribes for a specific period of time, in order to enable them to catch up with the others.

One of the great reforming leaders of the new elite was Rājā Rām Mohan Roy, who founded a religious society, the Brāhma Samāj, in 1828. A daring religious thinker, scholar, and educator, Ram Mohan Roy was influenced by Vedānta and Islam before he studied Christianity; he was a monotheist and opposed to idolatry. He was an able and courageous controversialist and fought the or thodox pandits with arguments they could appreciate. For instance, in his efforts to purge Hinduism of the idolatrous accretions it had acquired over the centuries, he advocated a return to Vedic Hinduism: “Like Luther, who appealed to the Bible as an authority against medieval corruptions, he took his stand on the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, in which he found a form of pure Hinduism, of which the basis was a belief in one God, which was not vitiated by idolatry, and which gave no sanction to distinctions of caste or such practices as suttee” (O’Malley 1941, p. 67). (Dayananda Saraswati, who founded the Ārya Sāmaj, a religious brotherhood, in 1875, was only following Ram Mohan Roy in his efforts to introduce radical changes in Hinduism by championing a revival of Vedic Hinduism.) Ram Mohan Roy was aware that an appeal to the authority of the Vedas would carry weight with the orthodox pandits, and he set the style for a debate that went on for nearly a hundred years between reformists and diehards, both of whom quoted the scriptures in support of their views.

Ram Mohan Roy also discovered that a principle of reason lay at the basis of the classical Indian philosophy of Vedanta, as set forth in the Upanisads. “Ram Mohan Roy abandoned the traditionally accepted bases of Hindu religion and Brahminic authority in favor of reason. Hinduism could be justified in its essentials on the ground that it provided a reasoned explanation of reality. Everything from the West could be considered in the same light. There could be assimilation and not merely borrowing at random” (Spear 1961, p. 296). He thus laid the foundation for a reinterpretation of Hinduism freeing it not only from social institutions such as caste and untouchability but also from a welter of beliefs, ideas, myths, and ritual. He did not regard these as the “essence” of Hinduism. The essence was selected portions of the Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, and bhakti or devotional literature. Subsequent reformers, such as Vivekānanda, Saraswati, Aurobindo Ghose, Tilak, Gandhi, and Rādhākrishnan, carried on the work of reinterpretation. Over the years the reformers, the greatest of whom was Gandhi, built up a body of public opinion in favor of introducing drastic changes in Hinduism. It was this opinion which later enabled the state to take legislative action against certain Hindu practices that were repugnant to the modern outlook.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the beginnings of the growth of nationalist sentiment among Hindus, and nascent patriotism drew upon Hindu sentiment and traditions. A concern for the people and the country inevitably meant activism, and the Bhagavad Gita provided a religious source for political activism and altruism. The karma marga, or “path of works,” received emphasis at the expense of the other two paths. Two contrary processes have been gaining strength in modern India. The first one is Sanskritization, a process by which the rites, customs, beliefs, and style of life of the higher castes, and in particular the brāhmans, are taken over by the lower groups, including the Untouchables and the tribal peoples. But while the lower groups in creasingly Sanskritize their style of life, the higher strata become increasingly westernized. Westernization, like Sanskritization, is a multilayered process, including the acceptance of Western technology, Western political, legal, and social institutions, and Western literature, philosophy, and science. The spread of Sanskritization and west ernization across the country and to different structural levels is beginning to produce nationwide uniformities in religion and culture. Everywhere village deities traditionally associated with epidemics of diseases such as plague, smallpox, and cholera seem to be losing ground, while the prestigious Sanskritic deities are becoming more popular. Blood sacrifices and offerings of liquor to deities are also becoming less popular. The horizon of the peasant is widening, and the richer peasants now visit pilgrimage centers several hundred miles away from their villages. Films, radio, textbooks, newspapers, journals, and paper back books are strengthening “regional” and “all-India” Hinduism, at the expense of strictly “local” forms. Life-cycle rituals are becoming abbreviated, while the purely social aspects of such rituals get elaborated; this seems to be particularly true of educated Hindus in towns. In fact, the forms Hinduism is taking among the educated urban Hindus is only beginning to be explored by social scientists (see, for example, Singer 1959). The search for a satisfying philosophy leads many members of this class to become devotees of one or another spiritual leader. Some of these leaders are traditional heads of monasteries, while others are modern figures. Hinduism has in the past depended upon caste, village, joint family, Hindu kings, monasteries, and centers of pilgrimage for its perpetuation. Radical changes have occurred in all of them. Moreover, there has been a growth in secularization, egalitarianism, and rationalism. But new organizations such as the Ramakrishna Mission, the various hermitages of religious leaders, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and finally, departments of the central government such as the All-India Radio, and in some states departments supervising temple administration, are reinterpreting Hinduism in a modern direction.

M. N. Srinivas and A. M. Shah

[See alsoAsian Society, article onSouth Asia; Caste, especially the article onThe Indian Caste System; Pollution.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Basham, Arthur L. (1954) 1963 The Wonder That Was India: A Study of the History and Culture of the Indian Sub-continent Before the Coming of the Muslims. New ed., rev. New York: Hawthorn.

Contributions to Indian Sociology (Paris). → Published since 1957 under the editorship of Louis Dumont and D. Pocock.

Farquhar, John N. 1920 An Outline of the Religious Literature of India. Oxford Univ. Press.

Ghurye, Govind S. (1932) 1961 Caste, Class and Occupation. 4th ed., rev. Bombay: Popular Book Depot. → First published as Caste and Race in India.

Ghurye, Govind S. 1953 Indian Sadhus. Bombay: Popular Book Depot.

Ghurye, Govind S. 1962 Gods and Men. Bombay: Popular Book Depot.

Hubert, Henri; and Mauss, Marcel (1899)1964 Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. Univ. of Chicago Press. → First published in French.

Kane, P. V. 1930-1962 History of Dharmasastra: Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India. Vols. 1–5. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

Lambert, Richard D.; and Hoselitz, Bert F. (editors) 1963 The Role of Savings and Wealth in Southern Asia and the West. Paris: UNESCO.

Marriott, McKim (editor) 1955 Village India: Studies in the Little Community. Univ. of Chicago Press. → Also published as Memoir No. 83 of the American Anthropological Association, which was issued as American Anthropologist, Volume 57, No. 3, Part 2, June 1955.

Morgan, Kenneth W. (editor) 1953 The Religion of the Hindus. New York: Ronald Press.

O’Malley, Lewis S. S. (editor) 1941 Modern India and the West: A Study of the Interaction of Their Civilizations. Oxford Univ. Press.

Singer, Milton (editor) 1959 Traditional India: Structure and Change. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society.

Singer, Milton et al. 1958 India’s Cultural Values and Economic Development: A Discussion. Economic Development and Cultural Change 7:1–12.

Smith, Donald E. 1963 India as a Secular State. Princeton Univ. Press.

Spear, Percival 1961 India: A Modern History. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.

Srinivas, M. N. 1952 Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India. Oxford: Clarendon.

Srinivas, M. N. 1962 Caste in Modern India, and Other Essays. New York: Asia Pub. House.

Stevenson, Margaret 1920 The Rites of the Twiceborn. London: Milford.

Weber, Max (1921) 1958 The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism, and Buddhism. Translated and edited by Hans H. Gerth and Don Martindale. Glencoe, III.: Free Press. → First published as Hinduismus und Buddhismus, Volume 2 of Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie.

Hinduism

views updated Jun 27 2018

Hinduism

The history of gender and sexual ideologies in Hinduism is complex. In thinking about the topic as it relates to the ancient world, one must consider both ideal relations between gods and goddesses, ideal relations between men and women described in legal, narrative, and philosophical texts, in addition to facts on the ground about actual practices that can be discerned from these texts. In thinking about the topic in the colonial and postcolonial world, one must consider the distortions of the colonial accounts about gender and sexual practices, as well as the complexity of the postcolonial situation, where anxieties about the global status of Hinduism and its gender ideologies compete with feminist discourse, inspired by both Western and secular Indian sources.

This survey begins with what can be gleaned from the ancient world. It is widely known that the Indus Valley civilizations of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, in what is now present-day Pakistan, used seals and figurines that featured women prominently. While it is impossible to ascertain without doubt whether these were goddesses, their postures and proportions suggest that the society placed a great deal of emphasis upon fertility.

The Vedic period, spanning roughly from 1500 bce to 200 ce, includes evidence from the very oldest texts of the Vedas, and their ritual philosophical texts (the Brahmanas) as well as the ritual manuals (the Sutras). It is known that gender roles were symbolically coded in the form of sacrificial performance. Whereas many other gender ideologies in the ancient world do see women as a repository of both sexuality and fertility, the Vedic sacrificial world also involved a public assertion of the necessity of the woman's role in the working of the cosmos. No patron of a sacrifice could perform a ritual without being married and his wife being present. The model householder tended the domestic fire, and recited mantras at home that his wife was also required to recite. No sacrifice was complete without both a woman and a man present. In addition, many Vedic rituals required the sacrificer's wife to participate in some symbolic offering or in a staged dialogue.

It is also well known that in the early period, women were able to participate in the practice of renunciation and meditation, as well as in elite debates. These debates are depicted in texts called the Upanishads, where smaller schools of renunciants who had removed themselves from the bustle of society were able to practice meditation and reflect upon the power behind the sacrifice, called Brahman. These women were probably the exceptions to the rule, but worth noting nonetheless. The stories of Maitreyi and Gargi in the Upanishads show the women as thoughtful participants in the discussion about the power and nature of Brahman, who challenge husbands and rulers alike. There are also brief references to brahmavadinis—or women who speak about Brahman.

In addition, the Vedic world involved certain goddesses who, while not as prominent as the other male gods, were powerful agents within the sacrificial world. Agni, the god of fire, and Soma, the god of intoxicating and eloquence-inducing drink, and Indra, the warrior god, were understood as some of the main actors in the divine world during this period. In addition to minor female deities, such as the goddesses of Night and Dawn, abstract qualities, such as Medha (intelligence), and concrete ideas, such as Ida (the sacrificial offering itself), were understood as female powers.

But by far the most important female deity in the Vedas was Vac, the goddess of speech. Vac is seen as the creator of the world who inspires the sacrifice. In later texts of the Brahmanas, she is seen as the consort of the creator Prajapati. Indeed, in the numerous accounts of creation found in the early Indian texts, the symbolism of the male and female principles working in concert with each other is prominent. Sky and Earth, for instance, combine as male and female principles to create the world as we know it.

From late Vedic domestic manuals called the Grihyasutras, women's rituals relating to menstruation, marriage, and study were described as part of the ideal life of the person who was twice-born—the three upper castes who were initiated (born again) into the study of Vedas. Marriage rituals involved a series of symbolic statements about harmony in marriage, the producing of sons, and the auspiciousness of the wife as a fertile and faithful keeper of the household. Once married, women were able to recite some mantras having to do with domestic life, and one Grihya-sutra (Ashvalayana) mentions that the older married women in the community are the ritual experts concerning marriage and fertility, and should be consulted whenever there is doubt in these matters.

While there are intriguing ways in which ancient gender representations included women's participation in the public sphere, it should not be assumed that women were understood as equal to men or having rights in the contemporary sense. Indeed, gender roles were circumscribed; men were the main performers and agents of sacrifice, and women were understood primarily as sources of auspicious fertility.

In the classical and epic period of early India (200 bce onward), there was a gradual shift in gender ideologies. Women's roles became far more circumscribed within the domestic sphere, and their access to traditional Vedic education became far more limited. Male priests oversaw worship (puja) in the newly emerging temples that were replacing Vedic sacrifice; men understood this leadership as their exclusive domain. In the legal texts called the Dharma-sutras, there is evidence for a large codification of women's roles and responsibilities in the domestic sphere. In the contemporary world, the most famous passages concerning gender roles are from the laws of Manu. In it, there are several different kinds of statements about women; they are extolled as the source of great auspiciousness and reviled as uncontrollable forces that need to be curtailed at all times by men.

In addition, these legal texts show a clear patriarchal point of view in marriage. While the most auspicious kind of marriage is where the families negotiate and the woman consents, there were also forcible marriages as well as marriages of mutual consent of the partners without the participation of the families. In each of these cases, it is clear that the marriage contract could be based on either social standing or desire, but social standing was the preferred mode. Moreover, it is also clear that forcible taking of a woman was not an unthinkable option. In these early legal and later texts, it is clear that dowry was practiced among high caste Hindus, as well as patrilocal marriage. As early as the Vedas, and quite pronounced in the classical texts, the idea of a woman leaving the home to go to her husband's family was a crucial part of the life cycle of a woman.

And yet gender ideologies are not simply to be understood as patriarchal oppression. Epic heroines such as the Ramayana's Sita and the Mahabharata's Draupadi are both described as the dutiful wife who takes her husband as a god. That both heroines exemplify the wife's faithfulness and ability to undergo great suffering on behalf of her husband (or husbands) is quite sharply forgrounded. However, to understand this as simple patriarchy would be erroneous. In the Ramayana, for example, Sita explicitly argues with her husband Rama before his exile in the forest, and insists on going with him. In that passage, she makes her case as if she were an expert in dharma, citing texts and challenging his masculinity. Throughout the Mahabharata, Draupadi engages in similar argumentation. Indeed, through her use of wit, remarkably used at the height of a public humiliation, she is able to save the Pandavas, her husbands, from complete ruin. Moreover in other passages, she explains her great strength and control over the Pandavas' kingdom of Hastinapura, and this competence is part of a very complex gender ideology in which strength and mental prowess matter greatly; women's weakness and submission are only part of the equation.

During the first few centuries ce, the classical Hindu pantheon emerged, which involved: Shiva, the god who alternates between being an ascetic and being a householder; Vishnu, whose earthly forms come into being in specific cases where the world needs to be saved; and Brahma, the creator god who is somewhat removed from the daily goings-on of the universe. In the first few centuries ce, the Devi Mahatmya was formed as a significant text in this classical pantheon.

The story of the goddess in that text narrates how the buffalo demon Mahisha was tormenting the world, and none of the gods could stop him. The gods got together and emanated their very essence to create a being powerful enough to conquer the demon. As a result, the goddess was formed, and emerged seated on a lotus, with the great weapons of all the gods in her hands. She then went on to conquer the demon in battle. Some traditions say that the demon, at the moment of being killed by the goddess, became her devotee.

There are many other legends of the goddess in addition to this basic one. From her very ancient and pluralistic history, the goddess goes by many names and has many forms: Durga rides on a lion or tiger and is fierce in battle; Kali is the protectress who is also terrifying in form; Gauri is the beneficent "golden" one who is often seen as a "consort" figure to the gods. Lakshmi is also the consort of Vishnu, and is present with him as he rests between the yugas, or cyclical ages of the universe. Many would argue that there is no "singular" goddess as such, but rather that she has her origins in local female deities, such as the goddess who presides over a cross roads, or at the meeting of rivers in a forest. What is more, many would see her origins in the female figurines of the Indus Valley, the civilization which existed and probably co-mingled with the Aryan one from approximately 3500–1700 bce.

What kinds of gender ideologies do stories from the classical Hindu world represent? Some have argued that, unlike the male gods, the goddess is split in her affinities, either as a powerful virgin prone to anger, or a domesticated female consort who is more benevolent. This analysis may not truly be the case when it comes to the actual ritual worship of gods and goddesses. Frequently, the more terrifying form of Kali is understood as a protectress and a crusader against evil, whether it be the evil of illusion or the more concrete evils of attackers or demons. In addition, recent fieldwork has shown that many women as well as men identify their earthly female power with Shakti, the divine power that resides in and through the goddess. Shakti is a very pervasive idea in Indian myth and ritual. Shakti resides in men, women, animals, and plants—particularly the tulsi plant, which in many contemporary rural festivals is seen to the incarnation of the goddess.

There is a frequent Western misconception that shakti is equivalent to female political empowerment and the so-called liberation of women from confinement to the domestic sphere. While the concept is used even in medieval philosophical systems, it does not necessarily follow that those who worship the goddess or praise the power of Shakti automatically have some kind of protofeminist gender ideology.

It would be remiss in an article about gender ideology and Hinduism not to mention tantra, the practice in different strands of Hinduism that became fully emergent during the classical period. Tantra inverts the established rules of sexuality, purity, and social hierarchy. Some tantric practices involve explicit sexual symbolism and sexual practice, where copulation becomes a means of union with the divine. The male and female principles are embodied in the male and female partners, and together in coitus they represent a kind of cosmic coincidence of opposites. The question of Hindu tantra has been widely controversial in the colonial and postcolonial era, where Hindu nationalists have protested what they perceive to be a practice that exists outside of the Hindu norm.

In the classical premodern period, when this ideology of the goddess was established, there is very little evidence for the large-scale empowerment of women as most would conceive it in the early twenty-first century. Certainly there is some evidence for individual holy women, whose exemplary devotion made it possible for them to be freer of certain kinds of roles. Also there is some inscriptional evidence in the medieval period for women patrons of South Indian temples. Finally, evidence exists of courtesans and temple dancers who dwelt in and near temples, and whose ritual roles in the worship of the temple gods also gave them a certain ability to own property, choose their partners, and develop abilities in the arts.

The early modern and colonial periods involved very protracted debates about women's role and gender ideologies, which continue in their postcolonial form to this day. It is important to remember, however, that while the colonial and postcolonial frames of analysis are helpful and give more data about gender than the precolonial period, precolonial forms of law themselves were not fossilized, but had their own flexibilities and forms of internal debates about gender.

The Moghul period is a good place to begin. Once they had established rulership, the Muslim emperors (between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries) tended not to interfere in Hindu practices of worship, marriage, and domestic arrangements. Some rulers even made alliances with Hindu princesses. But the British rulers and Christian missionaries engaged in a very different modality of governance, in which issues of gender played a central role.

First and foremost, debates about four different practices involving women emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: widow remarriage; child marriage; the status of devadasis, or temple dancers, and sati, or the immolation of the widow upon her husband's funeral pyre. In each of these cases, the British attempted both to make use of and undermine traditional Indian law codes. In the complexity of the colonial scene, Hindu elites, missionaries, local rulers, and British administrators all played different kinds of roles.

The issue of widow remarriage was essentially concerned with rules and regulations about whether widows were inherently polluted, and marginal to society, once their husbands died. This practice was particularly difficult for the child who had been promised to someone before puberty, and whose betrothed husband died before she reached puberty. In that case, many young girls were permanently confined to widows' homes or to lesser accommodations within the joint family system. Women gained the legal right to remarry in the 1856 Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act; one hundred years later, women gained inheritance rights through the Hindu Succession Act of 1956. In some areas of India these rights are fully utilized and realized, whereas in other parts, there are different views within communities about the roles of widows. The practice of sati spawned a large debate in the early nineteenth century between reformers and traditional Hindus, and was outlawed by the British in 1829. Extremely rare and controversial cases have occasionally surfaced in the intervening centuries.

The related issue of child marriage concerned the legal age that a girl could be betrothed, and have sexual relations with, her husband. Despite the British's attempt to present themselves as noninterfering in the arena of Hindu custom, the Age of Consent Bill was nonetheless passed in 1891, which made marriage or forced sexual relations with a woman under twelve an act of rape. While many upper caste reformists championed it, some Hindu nationalists protested this move greatly, and argued that it neither protected children nor honored the Indian male.

The debates about devadasis were also intense. In the colonial period, the practice of dedicating women to temples, and hence to the god of the temple in marriage, was protested by both Hindu social reformers and missionaries alike. The colonial rulers saw such practices as a thin guise for prostitution. However, the argument for maintaining such practices was that, traditionally, women have had more choice in the matter than many suppose, and have protections, artistic prestige, and independence that many married women do not.

These and other debates within the colonial period created a lasting legacy about masculinity within the context of colonial rule. Many recent scholars have turned their attention to the idea that the Indian male was understood as effeminate by the ruling class, and the British elite more masculine, and that much anticolonial Hindu rhetoric, and anti-Western nationalist rhetoric of the early twenty-first century is bound up with an attempt to restore a lost Hindu masculinity. Relatedly, Bamkin Chandra Chatterji (1836–1894) provided a great inspiration for the nationalist movement, whereby the concept of Mother India as a goddess was fully developed. Mother India, represented by the goddess Durga on a tiger, was an ideal that was to be protected at all costs, just as the Indian, usually Hindu, woman was to be protected at all costs. Much of the vernacular debates between reformists and traditional Hindus led to ironic situations, such as the wives of great Hindu reformers obediently submitting to being educated and liberated to please their husbands. Another important dynamic in these gender debates is the gradual transformation of a liberal Hindu elite into a nationalist one, where, over the course of a century, Hindu women's freedom became identified with national freedom.

The 1960s and 1970s sparked a larger conversation between Western feminism and indigenous Indian feminism. Much of the recent protests to practices of dowry, the rare incidences of sati, and female infanticide are taken up by secular feminists and social workers. Many of these thinkers and activists make their arguments not on the grounds of women's agency and individual choice alone, but on a deeper understanding of Indian values that tend to resist the imposition of Western categories. For example, many feminists are focused on women's leadership in the local village governments in rural India. To take another example, recent feminists have argued that abuses in the practice of dowry were not simply Hindu or Indian in nature, but exacerbated by changing economies and the stresses of colonial rule as well as postcolonial sociopolitical realities.

Many colonial debates continued in new forms. The question of whether Hindus or Muslims should have separate legal codes in India has been hotly debated, and could have great impact on the inheritance rights of women overall. To take another example, the colonial debate about devadasis was also taken up in the twentieth century, and the Devadasi Act was passed in 1982. The practice of temple prostitution was made illegal and punishable by fine and imprisonment. Yet the artistic forms of dance that may have originated in the temple have remained an integral part of secular and Hindu society in India and the diaspora.

While in contemporary India, social workers and women's rights groups tend to see themselves in opposition to Hindu practices, there are an increasing number of women who also write as Hindu feminists. They are attempting to reclaim much of the tradition of Shakti for contemporary empowerment of women within India as well as Hindu women more globally. In addition, there is a larger presence of the Hindu goddess in Europe and America as well as in India, and an appropriation of her by Western feminists that has made her a much more global figure.

In addition, female gurus are now taking center stage as teachers and leaders in both American and Indian Hindu communities. Finally, many more men and women are writing as openly gay and lesbian Indians, and searching for precedents within the ancient artistic and literary canons of Hindu as well as Muslim India.

In an age of Hindu diaspora, gender ideologies work themselves out in interaction with vernacular realities. The present generation of American Hindu women, for example, are concerned with the vulnerabilities of the diaspora minority community, and the ways in which gender ideologies might change as the generations pass. Feminists in India, by contrast, must focus on related, but distinct, sets of issues, where economic rights of women, abuse of dowry practices, and Hindu nationalism's views of women are much more in the forefront of political discourse. Technology provides each Hindu population much more access to the other global Hindu communities, and thus gender ideologies are shifting at a much more rapid pace. The political organization of Indian gay rights movements and movements against the discrimination of hijras, for example, have taken place as a result of active information exchange across continents.

see also Goddess Worship; Hijras; Kali.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Agnes, Flavia. 2004. Women and Law in India—An Omnibus. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Coburn, Thomas. 1991. Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi Mahatmya and a Study of its Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Courtright, Paul, and Leslie Harla, eds. 1995. From the Margins of Hindu Marriage: Essays In Gender, Culture, and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.

Doniger, Wendy. 1981. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Doniger, Wendy. 1999. Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Harlan, Lindsey. 2003. The Goddesses' Henchmen: Reflections on Gender in Indian Hero Worship. New York: Oxford University.

Hawley, John S., and Donna M. Wulff. 1996. Devi: Goddesses of India. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hiltebeitel, Alf, and Kathleen Erndl, eds. 2002. Is the Goddess a Feminist? The Politics of South Asian Goddesses. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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Leslie, Julia. 1991. Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women. Montclair, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press.

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                                           Laurie L. Patton

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