On the Chutzpah of Indian Elites – a Harvard case study

 

This video is from the high profile Harvard India Conference in Feb 2019 at Harvard. It was organized by Indian student body at Harvard. Sadhguru was first questioned by a panel of three students (two from Harvard Business school and one from Kennedy public policy school) and it was followed by audience Q&A.

This post is about the attitude of these students, the crème de la crème of India and the world.

First, I think it would be fair to say that Sadhguru has likely accomplished a lot more than any students in the panel or the audience, even if you exclude the spiritual angle, which, of course, is Sadhguru’s greatest contribution. I am talking about “measurable” achievements like number of people educated, treated, trees planted, impact on education and environment policy. The number of people that Sadhguru has positively impacted is more than the whole population of most countries in the world. And he has done all this primarily through volunteers. So one would think that the Indian students at Harvard would recognize these contributions and be proud of a global leader of Indian origin, especially given that the forum is India conference. And they would treat it as a master class and have an attitude of, well, students!

Far from it.

The panel and the questioners later seemed more interested in conducting a trial of Sadhguru with an aim of “exposing” him and, by proxy, the deep problems of India which, of course, Harvard understands far better than an uneducated guru. Indeed, the MC kicked off the session by asking the panel to take Sadhguru “to task”! I think Sadhguru sensed this early on because his responses were uncharacteristically hard hitting.

So what were the students interested in?

The conversation started with “philosophical” questions. No, not to explore the philosophy which has driven Sadhguru’s incredible public service. Not also to explore Sadhguru’s spirituality. The goal seemed to be to point out holes in Hindu philosophy. In the very first question one panelist said that Gita teaches karma karo fal ki chinta mat karo (do your work without caring for the results) and points out that she finds it non-sensical.

I wonder if the questioner would be able to tell the names of five chapters of Gita, or even how many chapters and shlokas it has, forget reading it. Most likely all she knows about Gita is from hear say (read whatsapp university). But her limited knowledge does not prevent her from casting doubts on the Gita with such certitude.

By the way, I have read Gita and karma karo fal ki chinta mat karo is not the lesson I got from it.

This is a common trend among educated Indians. I have seen my friends mock the Vedas, Ramayana and, of course, the manu smriti even though none of them have read any of it. A friend said to me – I would rather watch a Netflix series than waste my time on reading Hindu scriptures. So he hasn’t read and won’t read but yet he is certain that these scriptures are worthless.

This is chutzpah — confidence in spite of ignorance.

Later someone from the audience asked – why should a youth like me care about religious celebrations like Maha Shivratri? (By the way, people should check out the amazing 2019 Maha Shivratri celebrations of at Isha foundation, Coimbatore.) Again he likely has no idea about the origin and significance of Maha Shivratri. The fact that millions have been celebrating it for thousands of years means nothing to him because he has already concluded that anyone taking part in this festival seriously is obviously deluded and superstitious.

The rest of the questions pretty much followed the clichés and talking points of BBC, NYT, Economist and NDTV — india is a rape capital, it is full of discrimination, intolerance, regressive religious practices, etc – essentially propagating what RM calls the caste, cows and curry caricature of India.

The amazing thing is that such hinduphobia is rampant in people who grew up in India in a Hindu household. Hindu bashing for them is cool and progressive. Again, their cynicism is only matched by their ignorance.

My take

I think two things are going on here.

First, is the elitism and arrogance of the Ivy league. That is universal and not limited to Harvard and Yale. We all know people from IITs, IIMs, etc who behave like they are a gift of God to humanity. I am not too concerned about this elitism because the sensible ones usually get over it once they come out of campuses and enter the real world.

The other thing is more deep rooted, harder to correct and malicious — it is hinduphobia. It is no longer limited to the humanities students in JNU but has also infected the science and engineering colleges. The weird and dangerous aspect of it is that hinduphobia in India is not restricted to badmouthing the Hindu spiritual leaders like Sadhguru and Baba Ramdev who are the obvious targets. It extends into every section of society including media and education.

[by the way, I loved Sadhguru’s response to “a monk like Yogi Adityanath ought not to hold an important political position like that of chief minister”. The response was essentially — what is your bloody problem?! Yogi is a citizen of India and followed due process to get where he is. He didn’t get any special treatment – forget political favors, he reminded people that a Hindu monk in India can’t  drive without a license or take a flight without a ticket .. he has no special privileges! Then why should he not be able to exercise his political rights?]

So, why is hinduphobia so wide spread in India?

Here is my theory — Indian culture even as it is today does go back continuously for thousands of years to the pre-christian times. Many religious ceremonies and metaphors in Indian languages today can be traced right back to the Vedas. As a result, it is not possible to separate religion (hinduism) and culture in India. Of course,  I don’t feel the need for such a separation. But on college campuses it is cool to be anti-religion or, at the very least, SBNR (spiritual but not religious). And since Hinduism is the dominant religion in India, and also far less assertive and more tolerant than the abrahamic religions or, for that matter, the Richard Dawkins brand of atheists, Hinduism becomes a natural and a soft target.

You can find many more examples of this in Sadhguru’s Youth and Truth series with college students on campuses across India.

You will find hinduphobic chutzpah all around you. Pay attention.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Isha or Harvard.

Sabrimala has NOTHING to do with Women’s rights

(photo from https://www.business-standard.com)

.. just like Jallikattu has NOTHING to do with animal rights, Dahi Handi has NOTHING to do with safety, Diwali firecracker ban has NOTHING to do with pollution.

[20 Oct 2018]

On 28 September, 2018 Supreme Court of India ruled that Women Of All Ages Can Enter Sabarimala Temple, thereby ending centuries old tradition of women of certain age (10-50 years) not being permitted in the temple.  The purpose of this post is to make one thing absolutely clear – regardless of where you stand on the SC verdict, this case has nothing to do with women’s rights. I arrived at this conclusion based on multiple reports, some of which are listed below.

• The central issue in this case is explained in this 8-min video by RM
• For the history of the Sabrimala temple and the nitty gritty details of the case see Pgurus interview of activist TR Ramesh

For the real big picture of how this case is a perfect case study of rising Hinduphobia as well as apathy of Hindus read this article by Sandeep Balakrishnan in Dharmadispatch.in. He coined a term for the sleeping Hindus – Incurables. I think it is very apt.

 

 

David Chalmers – a case study in digestion of Vedic mind sciences?

In my other post, I explained that mind sciences is at the core of the Yogic world view and can be considered the organizing principle for the Indian civilization. Various Dharmic schools (including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism), Sanskrit, Yoga, meditation, Pranayaam and Ayurveda were all developed to create an ecosystem for exploring the mind. Needless to say this is not generally appreciated, not even by Hindu Indians, forget the rest of the world. I myself didn’t appreciate this until a few years back while I was still an IBCD!

Why so?

One of the reasons is the systematic decoupling of the Indian mind sciences from Hinduism and, consequently, India. RM’s talk in this earlier post (India’s (unacknowledged) contributions to Mind Sciences by Rajiv Malhotra) presents numerous examples of famous westerners indulging in this appropriation and digestion. They are all from recent times (last 100 years); some are around today. I think I have found one more who can be added to this list — David Chalmers, a professor of philosophy and a cognitive scientist in NYU and Australia.

I came across this episode of NPR’s TED Radio Hour titled the Unknown Brain. Last segment of the show is on the below TED talk by Chalmers. With over 600,000 views, this is one of the most popular TED talks. Watch it before reading further –

Amazing, isn’t it?! It could hardly have been grander. With his following two crazy ideas, Chalmers is sketching the outlines of the next scientific revolution which might well be much more fundamental than quantum mechanics and relativity combined (!):

Idea 1: consciousness is fundamental – in the same sense as space, time, mass and charge are; he calls it HIS postulate.
Idea 2: consciousness is universal – everything is conscious, even the rocks. There is even a word for it — panpsychism!

I was stunned when I heard this talk. Stunned not in the least by the grandness of his vision or the originality of his ideas. Even a casual reader of Vedanta would recognize the ideas as the core tenets of the Vedanta, as I explain in the other post using references to a talk by Sadhguru. In fact these ideas would not be novel to any one who knows about the philosophies of any of the Indian-origin Dharmic traditions. Still, all that Chalmers says about the eastern connection is a casual side comment – these ideas are not all that alien to people from the eastern traditions. But an unsuspecting viewer might not pick it up and may well get the impression that these are radical new ideas and that Chalmers has pioneered them!

At this point, you may say – all right, he is not crediting the source adequately. What’s the big deal? A friend of mine actually said this to me. And he is not one of the JNU-type who are constitutively Hinduphobic. He is just confused – my target audience!

Ok, so what is the big deal? For starters, using an idea without crediting the source is considered academic misconduct. Chalmers, being a professor, ought to know this. Perhaps he is not aware of the Vedic philosophy? Possible, but unlikely. He is a philosophy professor, after all! So yes, I do suspect that he has plagiarized from Indian thinkers, but I can’t make that  claim just based on a 15 min video. I am raising a red flag, just like RM raised a red flag for Wendy Doniger, Sheldon Pollock, Devdutt Pattanaik and many more. Readers should investigate further. But certainly, if Chalmers ever applies for a patent for a product (say a new “mindfulness” app!) based on these not-really-that-crazy ideas, I hope the patent office consider Vedic mind sciences as prior art. (Related – Dr Mashelkar on The Turmeric Patent Battle and KSRI, Chennai)

Now, whether or not Chalmers has plagiarized from Indian thinkers or is “inspired” by them is not really my main concern. Ignoring the ethics for a bit, look at this from the point of view of one of the TED talk viewer who likely has no exposure to Hindu philosophy but is curious about meditation, brain, mind, etc. I happened to be in that category until recently but lately, I have been listening to an (authentic) lectures series on Patanjali’s Yog Sutra, the master text for meditation. And I am completely awe struck by the depth, sophistication and rigor of it. Patanjali, unlike Chalmers, is not iffy about things. He does not use words like “postulate” or “crazy” to describe his theories, presumably just to be safe, in case they turn out to be wrong later! Patanjali has developed the whole thing from theory to application. And by the way, Yog Sutra is just one of the many Hindu theories of the mind.

My point is that, not only is Chalmers not original, his formulation is likely also crude. So, a new student would be well advised to refer to authentic Hindu material along side Chalmers and see which makes more sense. For me, Patanjali’s Yog Sutra is the real deal. Why would you go for something like scotch when scotch is available; or, since it is mango season now, why go for any other mango when Indian mangoes are available?! RM has often commented – the digested versions of Indian traditions are invariably inferior to the original. And it is not always due to an ulterior motive. For a westerner, it may just be due to a lack of context.

Now, let us change the point of view to that of a nation or civilization. Imagine a TED talk which starts with these words: Imagine if we could cure diseases without any chemical drugs or surgery .. just by poking on your skin with micro needles. We call this technology micropoking! And on and on for 15 min without any mention of acupunture or China. Anyone, even an IBCD, would smell something fishy. The fact that people do not associate meditation with Hinduism, in the same way as they associate acupunture with China, or, for that matter, cheese burger with the US, shows how India has squandered her greatest soft power. Even in India today, Vedic mind sciences are not given enough attention in school curriculum nor in medical training. The centers of excellence in mind sciences are all in the west and that is where most innovation (new apps, courses, etc) is taking place. The situation is very much like that of yoga 25-30 years ago. India had nearly lost the adhikaar on Yoga till PM Modi intervened a few years back. Different matter that the intervention may be too little and too late. Ayurveda and meditation are fast heading in that direction.

Finally, I think I should make a disclaimer which should really not be necessary for those who have read the rest of this blog. But then, this is on the internet and people have short attention spans! Some of you might be asking – so, you think all of modern neuroscience — fMRI based brain mapping, human-computer interfaces, artificial intelligence, moon shot projects like BRIAN — are all pointless? I never said that. And I don’t think so. But I am asserting that the Vedic mind sciences are useful and have relevance today. The object of study for both the Hindu rishis and modern neuroscience is the same – the human mind. The two approaches have to be complementary, not at conflict with each other.

Note to reader: Hindu, Vedic, Yogic and Dharmic are used interchangeably.

Further reading:

1. Very nice (and short!) video on the Hindu formulation of consciousness by Swami Sarvapriyananda of  Ramakrishna Mission.
2. Interpreting Tantra As Subjective Neuroscience by neurologist Anand Venkatraman. A thought provoking and intriguing talk on the analogies between modern neuroscience and Tantra, another one of ancient Hindu theories of mind from the Kashmir Shaivism tradition.
3. Here is another one (Gareth Cook from Scientific American) in the league of Chalmers who just discovered panpsychism!

 

 

A wake up call for parents who read Devdutt Pattanaik to their kids

Finally! I have been hoping for a few years now for Rajiv Malhotra to expose Devdutt Pattanaik (DP). I had become suspicious of DP when he called Wendy Doniger his mentor because I knew the reality of Wendy Doniger from RM’s book Academic Hinduphobia.

The video is a conversation between RM and a Sanskrit scholar named Nityanand Misra who has studied DP’s work minutely from an authentic Dharmic perspective. It is a rigorous hour-long critique. This is enough evidence for me to conclude that Devdutt Pattanaik is a quack.

This post is primarily addressed to parents who are using DP to introduce Hinduism to their kids.

Ok, so one more quack. What is the big deal? The big deal is that this quack is considered an authority on Hinduism by many, including some in my family and friends. One thing that stood out for me in this video was that most of the errors and distortions by DP are not that sophisticated. I was stunned by the अ vs आ error and the insidious definition of आस्तिक. One does not have to be a big pandit to pick these out. So more than exposing DP, this video exposes the ignorance of the people reading DP. The high popularity of DP shows how widespread this condition (of ignorance and confusion!) is.

Ok, let’s say DP is toxic. But I don’t see any good alternative to DP. I have actually heard that from a friend whom I told that DP might be toxic. First, this is a ridiculous argument. Would you take poison if you are hungry and food is not readily available? Second, this is a lazy excuse. There is plenty of good material out there. You just have to  seek it out. Lastly, you can’t preach something that you don’t practice. So before you try to teach Hinduism to your kids, you should first teach yourself. And I will be honest — for someone who has been preconditioned by the popular hinduphobic (pseudo) secular narrative, Hinduism is not easy to appreciate. First step to teaching yourself would be to do some serious unlearning. And only then put in some serious time into reading authentic material and reflecting upon it.

Alright then, forget it. I will drop DP … and hinduism! Neither do I, nor my kids have the time for this.  The fact is that you are not dropping anything. You have ideas and opinions on everything, not only Hinduism but also every other religion. In fact, given how the world is changing you better know not only Hinduism, but also every other religion. For kids, this education is far more important than math and coding. I am not interested in converting anyone to anything. But if you are going to form opinions on Hinduism, do so based on authentic sources, not quacks like DP.

That is too big an ask. Still, even if I put in the effort to teach authentic Hinduism to my kids, how do I tell whether I am doing it right? There is actually a simple answer to this. While in school, as long as your kids don’t get the impression that all religions are the same, you might be fine. And by the time they are out of school, they should be absolutely clear as to why the Dharmic religions are fundamentally different from the Abrahamic religions. Note that I said different, not that any one is superior.

Rajiv Malhotra on the current state of Yoga

And “state” doesn’t just refer to higher states of consciousness but also the mundane stuff of the multi-billion dollar business of Yoga and the appropriation of Yoga by those from the Judeo-Christian camp as well as those from the “secular science” camp.

For a change, Rajiv Malhotra is not the interviewer, but the interviewed. He has said most of this in his interviews with other yoga Gurus (real and fake!), but it all comes together very well in this video. I don’t think anyone other than Rajiv Malhotra can provide such a 360 view of the current state of yoga world wide.

The video refers to many interviews done by Rajiv Malhotra. Following are some of them, along with some of my recommendations.

With insiders:

1. Dr. HR Nagendra, President VYASA, Bangalore (link)
2. Yogi Amrit Desai, Amrit Yoga (link)

With outsiders:

• Brooke Boon, founder of Holy Yoga (link)
• Dr. Ravi Ravindra on Is Templeton Foundation Digesting Vedanta into Christianity? (link)
• with Stephen Siegel, a Neo-Jewish Pseudo-Hindu on Hinduized Judaism, Tantric Kabbala, & More (link)

 

Dr Mashelkar on The Turmeric Patent Battle and KSRI, Chennai

Very interesting interview with Dr Mashelkar, also known as The Warrior of Haldighati , because he fought a 14 month long legal battle against US patent office. US patent office accepted Sanskrit texts on Ayurveda as evidence of prior knowledge – one more reason why preserving those texts are important. This patent battle led to a creation of a database of Traditional Knowledge Digital Library by Government of India. From TKDL’s website:

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) is a pioneer initiative of India to prevent misappropriation of country’s traditional medicinal knowledge at International Patent Offices on which healthcare needs of more than 70% population and livelihood of millions of people in India is dependent. Its genesis dates back to the Indian effort on revocation of patent on wound healing properties of turmeric at the USPTO. Besides, in 2005, the TKDL expert group estimated that about 2000 wrong patents concerning Indian systems of medicine were being granted every year at international level, mainly due to the fact that India’s traditional medicinal knowledge which exists in local languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Tamil etc. is neither accessible nor comprehensible for patent examiners at the international patent offices.

—

On a related note, watch this 2017 video of RM interviewing Professor Kameshwari who heads KSRI (Kuppuswami Shastri Research Institute) in Chennai.

This is one of the most highly acclaimed centers for research on Sanskrit shastras as well as Tamil literature. This interview explains the vital importance of KSRI, its financial vulnerability today, and the strategic projects it can perform if properly funded. It is important for our community to support such precious institutions rather than let Western Indologists hijack them as they have been doing. Infinity Foundation & KSRI have agreed in principle to collaborate and specific ways are being formulated. Please watch and help us raise funds.

 

 

 

 

 

“It is all Maya afterall, why bother?!”

Sounds familiar? I have heard this from many a gurus and (confused) Hindus. Below is Rajiv Malhotra’s response in 7 min. For a rigorous response, read the Gita in Sanskrit. Or if you don’t know Sanskrit, follow an authentic interpretation, for example, from Arsha Vidya Gurukulam.

 

India’s (unacknowledged) contributions to Mind Sciences by Rajiv Malhotra

Indian embassy in Washington DC kick started their Third International Yoga Day (2017) celebration with the below lecture by Rajiv Malhotra. The main theme of the talk was appropriation and digestion of Indian ideas and techniques by the west. It charted the developments in Mind Sciences in the West since Swami Vivekananda’s trip to the west. In one-hour Rajiv Malhotra mentioned all the people (in yellow), institutions (in red) and techniques/ideas (in blue) in the image above! That should be reason enough to watch the lecture!

Every time I hear RM speak on this topic, I realize something that I was overlooking earlier. Digestion clearly violates the ethics of academic and scientific research since the references are not properly cited and acknowledged. By weakening Indian culture and tradition, digestion also facilitates various Breaking India forces. I appreciated all this earlier.

However, all that is a problem for the Indian government and Swadeshi scholars. Should the aam aadmi care? How does it matter whether one gets the authentic version of a technique or the digested one? In other words, should it matter whether you learn Vipassana or it’s digested version of mindfulness; yog nidra vs lucid dreaming, Transcendental meditation vs relaxation-response? Rajiv Malhotra argues that it does matter because the digested versions are usually just a small subset of the source body of knowledge, and often are also substandard. He mentions that authentic Vipassana is much more advanced than mindfulness, yet mindfulness is projected as the “new and improved” version and is all over the town today. In a few generations, people may not even know that something called Vipassana even existed. I can easily imagine this. Indian scriptures and rituals can be very complex with many layers of meanings and symbolism. Same idea can often be interpreted and implemented in many different ways and combined with other ideas in numerous different ways. Once the source has been reduced to one or two digested forms, such experiments will no longer be possible. Paraphrasing from the talk:

digestion effectively plucks the fruit on a tree and leaves the tree behind to atrophy thereby eliminating the possibility of future harvests.

Another thing I realized is the difference between the way rest of Asia treated knowledge from India and how the west did it and is still at it. Buddhism spread to China, Japan and south-east Asia over millennia and steadily became less prevalent in India. Yet, Buddhist scholars and practitioners in those countries even today respectfully acknowledge their Indian roots. Western appropriators, on the other hand, go out of their way to avoid crediting India. RM gives a powerful analogy to illustrate this point:

it is like you run 100m faster than any one before and the credit goes to the guy with the clock who timed you and reported it to the world!

RM mentioned that he is writing seven books based on this talk. I can’t wait for it!

What is the Indian counterpart of American Exceptionalism?

This is a very important talk by Rajiv Malhotra delivered in Feb 2017 in New Delhi at an event organized by IGNOU. It addresses the question – what is the Indian counterpart of American exceptionalism?

The answer is – Bhartiya Exceptionalism. RM defines it, lays out the need for such a thing and compares it with the Grand Narrative of other nations. Of course, the sad thing is that there is need for articulation of Bhartiya Exceptionalism 70 years after independence!

For any student (this is, an honest student – not the Pollockian variety!) of Indian history and Hindu philosophy, it would be clear that Bhartiya exceptionalism would derive from Hindu heritage and philosophy.

The immediate next question, most likely from a confused Hindu, would be – what about the non-hindu minorities? Is there room for them? How can you right wingers be so intolerant?! First, let me remind you of the name of this blog: this-is-not-right-wing! Second – calm down. These would be non-issues in a society built on Hindu principles. That is because mutual respect (watch this short clip, ideally read Being Different) has always been a defining characteristic of Indian civilization. It has not just been an abstract idea but a lived reality and has facilitated integration of multiple immigrants over the ages.

So, how would we go about implementing Bhartiya exceptionalism in today’s India? Towards the end of the talk, RM clearly lays out there requirements that minorities ought to meet in order to integrate in a nation built on Hindu values. These are :-
1. Mutual respect should be a two-way street
2. Minority religions should disown foreign authority (apparently China has done this)
3. Minorities must accept the history of violence and oppression perpetrated in the name of their religions (think Aurangzeb).

I think these are perfectly reasonable requirements.

On the third point, note that no apology is being demanded from the minorities today. What is being asked is a recognition that, just like Jewish holocaust is a fact of history, so is Hindu holocaust. Anyone denying the Jewish holocaust in the west is promptly labeled fringe. But in India, Hindu holocaust deniers can easily be found writing for The Hindu, appearing on NDTV and, of course, raising slogans in JNU!

Rajiv Malhotra’s Report Card of Indian Diplomacy [Feb 2017]

Rajiv Malhotra today posted the below talk delivered in Feb 2017 at the Foreign Service Institute in Delhi which is part of the Ministry of External Affairs. I must have watched over 50 lectures by RM. This one is definitely among his greatest hits. It is full of deep insights, telling anecdotes and, of course, political incorrectness!

Some of the questions that RM addresses are:

• Why would US and the west destabilize India? Isn’t India, being a democracy, a natural ally?
• Are the Breaking India forces isolated and local? Or, are some foreign “grand designs” also at play?
• How does India studies in the west compare with that of other major civilizations such as Chinese, Japanese and Islamic? Who funds it? Who controls it?

Some observations from the talk that struck me are:

• It is not always the case that Breaking India forces are driven by Western agencies. Indians are far too eager to blame it all on the west. However, now there even are vested interest groups based in India who are duping western agencies into supporting them under the pretext of human rights, etc. It is the responsibility of Indian government to identify and weed them out.
• Islamization of India is often pointed out as a threat to the stability of India. However, RM makes a distinction between islamization and Arabization, and says that it is the later that is the problem. Islam per se is not an issue. He points to Indonesia as a case study since, in spite of converting to Islam, it has retained the Indian civilizational identity. So religion and civilization are two different things – fascinating! He also points to the rise of Urdu in Kerala as a symptom of the problem. Urdu in Kerala – what the .. ?!