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Hindus and Hinduism in the Media

Fireside_Hindu

Fireside_Hindu

Jai Lakshmi Maa
Namaste all!

Recently I've been given a very important job at my local temple. I'm in charge of helping teach Hindu Art and Culture to the Balvihar children each Sunday. I've been working intensely on building a curriculum. I've never taught a class before and certainly never something as important and complex as culture. My focus for the class will be on the subject of "Being Hindu in America" and help kids learn how to appreciate their heritage and understand the ways (good and bad) that Hinduism and Hindus are depicted in the media.

While I know of a few examples (both positive and negative) I'd like to ask you all for any references you might be aware of. Either in books, movies, magazines, TV etc.

Also, if you can list any names of famous Hindus (Preferably contemporary, but not required) that will also help me with an idea for a project I have for the kids.

Thanks!
 
Aupmanyav

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Srinivasa Ramanujam, CV Raman, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Satyendra Nath Bose, S Chandrashekhar, Meghanad Saha, Vikram Sarabhai, PC Mahalanobis, MS Swaminathan, etc.
 
ShivaFan

ShivaFan

Satyameva Jayate
Premium Member
Lord Chaitanya - Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (also transliterated Caitanya, Bengali: [Caitanya Mahāprabhu] born circa 18 February 1486 – died circa 14 June 1534

Caitanya led what may have very well had been the largest noncooperation movement in history against the Islamic rulers who forbid exhibiting any Hindu religious sentiment in public. When the local leader started to even arrest those who were said to call on the Names of the Lord in private, Caitanya, who was a school teacher, began to led public kirtans or chanting of the Names in public, these grew into masses and then a mass movement that spread from Bengal to Orissa and beyond.

Some scholars estimate that at one such mass gathering in Puri, over three million participated which terrified the Muslim overlords.

Caitanya would go into "fits" or some sort of state while dancing and leaping with his arms raised to the sky, no one to this day knows what was happening medical or spiritual.

It is believed at a young age, he walked into a river until the water was above his head and never... returned.

His noncooperation movement is of great historical consequence. His impact had huge consequence to Hindu freedom under Islamic oppression as well as the bhakti Gaudiya movement.
 
Aupmanyav

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Baudhayana (Indian mathematics - Wikipedia), Manava, Apastamba, Pingala (a Sanskrit treatise on prosody), Katyayana, Surya Siddhanta, Aryabhatta, Varahamihira, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara I, Virasena, Mahavira, Sridhara, Manjula, Aryabhatta II, Shripati, Bhaskara II, Madhava of Sangamagrama (along with Parameshvara, Neelakanta Soma-yaji*, Jyeshtadeva, Achyuta Pisharati, Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri and Achyuta Panikkar - Kerala School of Mathematics), Backshali manuscript, Charaka, Susruta, etc.
 
Spirit_Warrior

Spirit_Warrior

Active Member
I think when you are introducing Hinduism to NRI children in Western countries, it always helps to tell them about famous Western Hindus, names that they may have heard of just because it sort makes it "cool" for them. Some examples you can use:

George Harrison
Russel Brand
Julia Roberts
Robert Downey Jnr -- Iron man!
MIA
Kal Penn

If they are old enough, they may have heard of:

Aldous Huxley
JD Salinger
Schrodinger
John Dobson -- astronomer and telescope designer

Famous Western Gurus:

Swami Vivekananda
Swami Yogananda
Swami Satchitananda
Ramana Maharishi
Sri Aurobindo -- had massive influence on the human potential movement and the development of humanistic psychology

It is also worth mentioning like Aupmanyav mentioned, famous Hindu scientists past and present. They would be surprised to hear names like Kananda(atoms, gravity) Aryabhatta(heliocentric system) Brahmagupta(gravity) Bhaskara 2(First differential equations to calculate velocity of planets) Panini(first formal system) Pingala(binary numbers) and Susrutha(first plastic surgeon)
 
Shantanu

Shantanu

Well-Known Member
Fireside_Hindu said:
Namaste all!

Recently I've been given a very important job at my local temple. I'm in charge of helping teach Hindu Art and Culture to the Balvihar children each Sunday. I've been working intensely on building a curriculum. I've never taught a class before and certainly never something as important and complex as culture. My focus for the class will be on the subject of "Being Hindu in America" and help kids learn how to appreciate their heritage and understand the ways (good and bad) that Hinduism and Hindus are depicted in the media.

While I know of a few examples (both positive and negative) I'd like to ask you all for any references you might be aware of. Either in books, movies, magazines, TV etc.

Also, if you can list any names of famous Hindus (Preferably contemporary, but not required) that will also help me with an idea for a project I have for the kids.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hinduism is depicted as a religion of superstitition and concoted mythology. But within that we have the idea that God is present and available to the devotees. Hope this helps in developing your curriculum.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
I'm gonna be "that guy" - Mahatma Gandhi?

It's very easy for us to give you loads of stuff to talk about, but I'd suggest that you include Hinduism's widespread focus on nonviolence and how that influenced some people. So as to see it as something more engaged with the world, I wonder if you might mention how the spirituality-based nonviolent teachings of Gandhi were also taken up by Martin Luther King Jr and by Nelson Mandela.

This sounds like a great thing to be doing Fireside! Hope it's fulfilling!
 
Shantanu

Shantanu

Well-Known Member
Kirran said:
I'm gonna be "that guy" - Mahatma Gandhi?

It's very easy for us to give you loads of stuff to talk about, but I'd suggest that you include Hinduism's widespread focus on nonviolence and how that influenced some people. So as to see it as something more engaged with the world, I wonder if you might mention how the spirituality-based nonviolent teachings of Gandhi were also taken up by Martin Luther King Jr and by Nelson Mandela.

This sounds like a great thing to be doing Fireside! Hope it's fulfilling!
Click to expand...
I doubt whether nonviolence is as widespread in Hinduism as some are suggesting: consider Ramayana and the Mahabharatta which is all about fighting to restore one's rights as dharma.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
Shantanu said:
I doubt whether nonviolence is as widespread in Hinduism as some are suggesting: consider Ramayana and the Mahabharatta which is all about fighting to restore one's rights as dharma.
Click to expand...

True. But it's a widespread and established teaching in modern traditions.
 
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