{"id":8,"date":"2009-10-27T09:38:58","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T09:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/hindu-humor.html"},"modified":"2009-10-27T09:38:58","modified_gmt":"2009-10-27T09:38:58","slug":"hindu-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/hindu-humor.html","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Humor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, a reader included this concern in his or her following comment to one of my earlier posts<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Lastly, I do want to mention that I am not sure that the title of the
\nblog refers to the sacred mantra Om in a respectful manner.
\nWhen I lived in a (Bhakti Yoga) ashram, we were specifically instructed
\nnot to use holy names in this kind of joking context. Namaste<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can certainly sympathize. I too have been taught (and believe) that a mantra<\/i> (sacred sound) like Om should be afforded all respect. And, as I noted in my post about President Obama’s uttering the name of Lord Rama<\/a>, I come from a tradition that teaches that ultimately the holy names of the Divine are identical with the Supreme Himself. Such sound vibrations should definitely not be mocked or used in a disrespectful manner.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I recognize that religious humor can be a, well, funny thing. It is, like beauty, in the eye and the ear (and the belly laugh) of the beholder. One man’s “hilarious” is another’s “offensive.”<\/p>\n

\"pitka_mike_myers.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>I’ve written about this tension on Beliefnet before<\/a>; when some Hindus were complaining that the Mike Meyer’s movie The Love Guru<\/i> was anti-Hindu, I argued that the film was not unfairly targeting Hinduism and that it may even have something to teach our faith community about how to educate others with taking ourselves too<\/i> seriously. (To clarify: I wrote that article before the film actually was released and subsequently bombed at the box office. I did see the movie, and found it to be one of the most crude, asinine, poorly made films I’d seen. However I maintain that, repugnant as the film was to my good taste as a moviegoer, it wasn’t anti-Hindu per se.)<\/p>\n

I have a good friend — a fellow Vaishnava-Hindu — who is my comedy hero. This friend — lets just call him Yadunath Das<\/strike> Joe — happens to be a professional comedian. (By the way, being friends with a professional comedian is not nearly as hard as it sounds; despite what you might expect he doesn’t tell knock-knock jokes incessantly or keep slipping on banana peels or anything like that.)<\/p>\n

A few months ago, Joe and his wife — lets call her Beth<\/strike> Beth — co-wrote and performed a skit at our temple’s Krishna Janmashtam<\/a>i celebrations. The piece (a dialogue between a daughter and her mother, where Joe-in-drag played the mother) was hilarious– silly enough that the audience was roaring with laughter, but not so silly that it compromised the sanctity of the occasion. Afterwards, I was discussing the skit with a mutual friend, and we both began to appreciate Joe’s ability to walk that line and do everything with class and good taste. “Of course,” the mutual friend said with confidence, “he’s a man of substance.”<\/p>\n

That idea struck me then, and continues to strike me now: that good humor (as opposed to Good Humor<\/a>) is necessarily intertwined with the character, integrity, and substance of the joke-teller.
    <\/p>\n


\n\"uncle<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

San Francisco area comedian Joey “Uncle Joey” Gladstone struggled to be a man of substance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He retired shortly after his “cut…it…out” tour was boycotted by the special interest group, Americans Against Circumcision  <\/i><\/font> <\/div>\n

\nIt turns out that when our kindergarten teachers told us things like
\n“its the thought that counts” or “laugh with someone, not at them” they
\nwere actually on to something. As with most things, the intention and
\nmethod in which the gag is perpetrated are key.<\/p>\n

So is a joke just a joke? That depends.<\/p>\n

For
\nme, Joe is an example of humor-done-well. I’ve seen him consistently
\ntake the moral high road. Whether in a skit at the temple or at his
\nregular gig doing improv with Chicago City Limits, New York City’s longest-running show<\/a>
\nof its kind. In fact, in the context of improvisation that is
\nespecially astounding: to get suggestions (some of them pretty bawdy)
\nfrom the audience and then make a split-second decision as to where to
\ngo for maximum laughs is hard enough as it is, but Joe also makes sure
\nthat where he goes is not compromising his spiritual values or creating
\nharm to others. Of course, he probably doesn’t consciously make that
\njudgment call; by now its part of his hard-wiring. It comes from his
\nintegrity– literally, his integration of his beliefs, principles, and
\nactions. Or, as our mutual friend put it, his being “a man of
\nsubstance.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I’ve seen some painful examples of religious humor that was not<\/i>
\nokay. One example comes to mind: I was attending a convention of South
\nAsian journalists, and the awards dinner opened up with a comedy act.
\nThe comedian, a young Indian-American, was billed as edgy, smart, and
\nabove all else funny. Unfortunately, he was none of the above. His
\ngimmick seemed to involve mocking his own Hindu faith (he made sure to
\npoint out that he was Hindu) by using an over-enunciated Indian accent
\nand picking on the most outlandish or exotic features of the faith
\n(things like multi-armed deities, cows, or the caste system). It was
\nseeking out the lowest common denominator to cash in on some cheap
\nlaughs. It got so bad that a few attendees got up and left, and one
\nheckled him, demanding he got down from the stage. “Hey man,” the
\ndefensive comedian replied, “lighten up. It’s just a joke.” <\/p>\n

Hinduism
\nis no stranger to comedy. In fact, even the sacred texts and narratives
\ninvolve a good share of humor. (It is a vast subject, and in future
\nposts I hope to explore this and maybe offer some examples.) In the
\nBhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that Bhakti (the path of
\ndevotonal service) is su-sukham<\/i>, extremely joyful. Its okay to smile… maybe even laugh!<\/p>\n

Which
\nbrings me back to the question about the title of the blog, Om Sweet
\nOm. Obviously, its a pun that plays on words (“home sweet home” is an
\nAmerican colloquial expression, made popular by the 19th century song of the same name<\/a>).
\nAnd yes, it is meant to be a little cheeky. But it also conveys a
\ncertain truth, I hope. It helps me to express the fact that for me my
\nfaith is<\/i> home, and that it is sweeter than the sweetest. It
\nalso helps me to share a side of the faith — a playful, slightly
\nirreverent, but ultimately genuine side — that has been especially
\nmeaningful to me.<\/p>\n

There’s more that I can say about the back story to Om Sweet Om, but I am wary of committing the cardinal sin
\nof comedy– explaining a joke too much. So for now, here’s to laughing with<\/i> one another, and not at<\/i> anything anyone holds sacred. <\/p>\n

Please share your thoughts (or maybe your favorite joke) below.<\/p>\n

Namaste.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","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\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}