{"id":688,"date":"2011-05-19T16:37:34","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T20:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/?p=688"},"modified":"2011-05-19T16:37:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T20:37:34","slug":"hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html","title":{"rendered":"Hinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga"},"content":{"rendered":"
Over the course of the last year, as the Hindu American Foundation\u2019s Take Back Yoga<\/a> campaign has grown in prominence, I\u2019ve been asked many times why we felt compelled to address this issue. \u00a0Why not just appreciate the fact that yoga is hugely popular and has a beneficial impact on its millions of practitioners? \u00a0Why do we have to be so possessive about its origins? \u00a0Who really benefits out of this campaign?<\/p>\n

The short answer is my nieces, the young children of my coworkers at HAF, and the countless school-going Hindu Americans who are going through their world history classes and learning from textbooks that our rich, pluralistic tradition is essentially composed of an oppressive caste system, cow worship, and karma. \u00a0As the only Hindu in my seventh grade world history class, I clearly remember cringing when my teacher covered Hinduism, describing the many gods with multiple arms, arranged marriages, and the dowry system. \u00a0And from my work at the Foundation, it appears that not too much of this description has changed (despite some concerted efforts from the Hindu American community at large).<\/p>\n

Still, I grew up in an age when yoga was only known to Hindus and the new-age weirdos. \u00a0Most people hadn\u2019t heard the word \u201cNamaste\u201d nor seen the Om symbol nor balanced in Nataranjasana<\/em>. \u00a0But that\u2019s all changed today. \u00a0Yoga is everywhere. \u00a0In NYC, yoga studios are the new Starbucks – there is one around every corner. \u00a0Yoga is accepted. \u00a0It\u2019s no longer \u201cnew age,\u201d but \u201cspiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that \u201cspirituality\u201d is rooted in Hindu philosophy. \u00a0The yogic (or spiritual) idea that there are many paths to reach the ultimate truth, Divine, or self-realization is firmly rooted in the pluralistic nature of Hinduism. \u00a0The Rig Veda<\/em>, a sacred Hindu text, states, \u201cEkam sat vipra bahudha vadanti<\/em>,\u201d or \u201cThe Truth is One, the wise call It by many names.\u201d \u00a0Hinduism teaches us to be open to various paths, and we can see that philosophy carried over to the physical practice of yoga as well, where a number of asanas<\/em>, such as ustrasana<\/em>, are designed to open up the heart center, allowing us to be more receptive.<\/p>\n

For the younger generations of Hindu Americans, yoga should be a source of pride – their heritage\u2019s contribution to humanity. \u00a0But it cannot be if the disconnect between yoga and Hinduism continues to deepen. \u00a0They cannot hold their heads up high if schools and textbooks continue ignore the pluralistic ethos of Hinduism. \u00a0It is for them that we at HAF began the Take Back Yoga<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n

Imagine, for a moment, being a young Hindu American and reading a textbook which stated, \u201cThe popular practice of yoga is rooted in Hindu philosophy.\u201d \u00a0Imagine knowing your peers (and maybe their parents) are reading that. \u00a0Imagine adding that to your classroom discussion about Hinduism…imagine smiling instead of cringing.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the course of the last year, as the Hindu American Foundation\u2019s Take Back Yoga campaign has grown in prominence, I\u2019ve been asked many times why we felt compelled to address this issue. \u00a0Why not just appreciate the fact that yoga is hugely popular and has a beneficial impact on its millions of practitioners? \u00a0Why…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":390,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hinduism-101"],"yoast_head":"\nHinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga - Om Sweet Om<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga - Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the course of the last year, as the Hindu American Foundation\u2019s Take Back Yoga campaign has grown in prominence, I\u2019ve been asked many times why we felt compelled to address this issue. \u00a0Why not just appreciate the fact that yoga is hugely popular and has a beneficial impact on its millions of practitioners? \u00a0Why…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-19T20:37:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sheetal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga - Om Sweet Om","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga - Om Sweet Om","og_description":"Over the course of the last year, as the Hindu American Foundation\u2019s Take Back Yoga campaign has grown in prominence, I\u2019ve been asked many times why we felt compelled to address this issue. \u00a0Why not just appreciate the fact that yoga is hugely popular and has a beneficial impact on its millions of practitioners? \u00a0Why…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html","og_site_name":"Om Sweet Om","article_published_time":"2011-05-19T20:37:34+00:00","author":"sheetal","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html","name":"Hinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga - Om Sweet Om","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-19T20:37:34+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-19T20:37:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/892f83fe41e8ba0b2d625fb00436cec8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/05\/hinduism-cows-karma-and-yoga.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hinduism: Cows, Karma, and Yoga"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/","name":"Om Sweet Om","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Sheetal Shah","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/892f83fe41e8ba0b2d625fb00436cec8","name":"sheetal","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b81\/b81e39bd8aa137041bf8c5f1ece2d99fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b81\/b81e39bd8aa137041bf8c5f1ece2d99fx96.jpg","caption":"sheetal"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/sheetal"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/390"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}