Pet peeves

[Vinayaka]

A pet peeve from non-Hindus?

When people make assumptions of what I worship, usually something like, "Oh Hindus, they like, worship cows and snakes! I KNOW, *I'M from India!" (said from a CANADIAN Sikh woman! >_>)

I remember being on a flight top India via China, with many Punjabi Sikhs (and Hindus).
It was another harsh reminder of how ethnocentric India is, and the Punjab might be the most extreme example. Not everyone of course. When it gets that preposterous, one can just roll his eyes and move on.

 

[Jainarayan]

Here's another one:

"So, are you a Hare Krishna?".

 

[Vinayaka]

Here's another one:

"So, are you a Hare Krishna?".

I've never had that one, and I don't think I'd mind too much. One could be called worse things. Give them credit.They did put Hinduism 'out there' on the streets of America. Without them, America would even know less than it does now.

 

[bp789]

There's only a few incidents I remember:

"You guys worship cows!"
"Don't you worship a million gods or something?"
"You don't eat meat? You need to, especially chicken!"
"Have you even tried Christianity?"
"Do you know how much Jesus truly loves you?"

Those are really the only incidents I remember. I haven't really had to face a lot of stuff like that since I rarely talk about religion, which is surprising since I live in the Bible Belt. Things like that have definitely reduced as I got older because my parents moved to an area with a higher Indian population. So telling people I'm Hindu would result in a reply like, "Oh cool. So is the majority of our biology class"

 

[Jainarayan]

I've never had that one, and I don't think I'd mind too much. One could be called worse things. Give them credit.They did put Hinduism 'out there' on the streets of America. Without them, America would even know less than it does now.

I don't mean it as a putdown to ISKCON, just that if you say you're Hindu and/or you worship Krishna, immediately they think of ISKCON. Ironically, that is usually their only familiarity with Hinduism.

 

[Yogi1054]

I think the hardest thing for me would be other members of the temple getting mixed up with the difference between 'classical' yoga of Patanjali and the Hatha form that is taught today!

 

[Vinayaka]

Most Hindus I know don't even know what either form of yoga is. Some well read ones may have heard of Patanjali, but few would do hatha. It's just some western stretching.

 

[Yogi1054]

I agree a fellow ypga teacher of mine was quite shocked when I told them the Gita is not a yoga text! She kept on telling me it has Yoga in in until I explained that it was from the Vedanta school thats used alots of Yogic ideas in its teaching

 

[Vinayaka]

Vedantins do like to quote the Gita, but their primary scriptures are the Vedas and Upanishads.The Gita is technically very much a Vaishnava scripture, and there are those of us who rarely use it or quote it at all. As with a previously mentioned pet peeve, we are a vast assortment of schools.

 

[Maya3]

Oh don´t get me started!

1, Hindu??? Oh so you worship cows? Why the heck are cows sacred???
2, Ok so...how does this work, in your next life you might be a tree?
3, Reincarnation cannot work, because there are a lot more people now then there were, say 100 years ago.

4, And this is the biggest one, when people come to the Ashram for a weekend, participate in Homa, chant vedic prayers, stay for Gita or Upanishad studies and then towards the end of of their weekend talk about how they love Buddhism!!!

Maya

 

[Vinayaka]

Here's another one. Mispronunciation of Ganesha. 'esh' does not rhyme with mesh ... it's GuNAYshu.. actually not a u, but a schwa, but I have insufficient brainpower to figure out where the schwa is on my keyboard. Same with Shiva versus Siva... it's geographical, and therefore either is correct, just like color and colour.

 

[mohinishaktidevi]

Vedantins do like to quote the Gita, but their primary scriptures are the Vedas and Upanishads.The Gita is technically very much a Vaishnava scripture, and there are those of us who rarely use it or quote it at all. As with a previously mentioned pet peeve, we are a vast assortment of schools.

My pet peeve is that many Indian Hindus cannot quote the Gita, and worse still many many more Indian Hindus cannot quote the Vedas and Upanishads.

 

[Jainarayan]

but I have insufficient brainpower to figure out where the schwa is on my keyboard.

Not to worry, there is none. Not even in Windows character map. I write it as 'uh'. Now, the short 'u' in Sanskrit, as in 'foot' or 'put' is harder. Then I write... as in 'foot' or 'put'.

 

[Jainarayan]

My pet peeve is that many Indian Hindus cannot quote the Gita, and worse still many many more Indian Hindus cannot quote the Vedas and Upanishads.

In their entirety; to recite and quote from beginning to end?

 

[Vinayaka]

Lots of Indian Hindus know no scripture at all. Still they are all great Hindus and practise the faith. Why?

It's in the blood.

But ... if you come from a scripture based faith, you bring that very idea along ... that the new faith needs a scripture, that we need to look to scripture .. the Bible, Koran, and Torah, are replaced by the Gita, and there is no questioning of whether or not we need a scripture at all..... another pitfall converts fall into, I'm afraid.

 

[Jainarayan]

Sri Ramana Maharshi never read the Bhagavad Gita:

Throughout his life, through contact with educated devotees like Ganapata Muni[82], Ramana Maharshi became acquainted with works on Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta, and used them to explain his insights:[83]

People wonder how I speak of Bhagavad Gita, etc. It is due to hearsay. I have not read the Gita nor waded through commentaries for its meaning. When I hear a sloka (verse), I think its meaning is clear and I say it. That is all and nothing more.[84]
​

Ramana Maharshi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It says he became acquainted with works on Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta, not that he knew them by heart. I think few would consider him a sub-par teacher.

 

[Vinayaka]

That's cause Sri Ramana (and others of His ilk) had realised Truth from the inside out. So scripture just confirmed what he already knew. Now I can't even begin to comprehend that process, but the story has been told many times over.

I remember running into 'trouble' at Tiruvannamalai, but there was a big picture of Him in the hotel right above the front desk. I looked at it, and He just seemed to say, "Don't worry. This is my town, and you're in good hands." The whole place resonated with Him. Or it may have been that incredibly powerful and ancient Siva temple in the middle of the town, too. Probably a bit of each. Advaitins tend to forget the temple bit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYlemr_ESIk

 

[Jainarayan]

Yes, self-enquiry; a true talent on the way to self-realization. Maybe when one meditates on that and puts aside the prescriptions, the descriptions become visible. That probably didn't make sense, but suffice to say it's words v. actions, imo.

 

[Gaura Priya]

Here's another one. Mispronunciation of Ganesha. 'esh' does not rhyme with mesh ... it's GuNAYshu.. actually not a u, but a schwa, but I have insufficient brainpower to figure out where the schwa is on my keyboard. Same with Shiva versus Siva... it's geographical, and therefore either is correct, just like color and colour.

Don't forget 'shock'ruhz' which seem to be popular in 'opening' them in New Age-y circles. (Hatha) yoga is totally about opening up our shockras!

 

[Maya3]

Or when people pronounce ashram aeshram.

Maya