Week 309: Levels of Harmony, The Racist Hinduphobe Tour, Aesthetic

11/16/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: Harmony between Registers of Hinduism, the Racist Hinduphobe Tour, and an aesthetic!

Religion Highlight: Harmony between Registers in Hinduism

Adapted from posts from @Ghorangirasa (Angirasasreshtha) and @blog_supplement (Manasataramgini) The original posts are linked in their @s.

Hinduism contains multitudes; whether its the 33 types of deities, the different sects of Hinduism, the different languages used by Hindus in their daily lives, the different ethnic and racial groups worshipping the Gods, and lastly, the levels by which Hindus perceive and practice the religion. Some perceive Hinduism at the level of a Philosophical exploration and some perceive it as simple bhakti (devotion), fueled purely by belief and tradition. How does one bridge high-level philosophy and texts with the Hinduism on the ground?

Manasataramgini (MT) below outlines how Hinduism has multiple “registers” of practice, with our analysis below the screenshot.

Manasataramgini on the “Registers” of Hinduism

Category 1 is the Hinduism of the Vedas, Category 2 is Hinduism of the Vedas and a broader universe of texts (puranas, upanishads, etc) and Category 3 is Folk Hinduism. Most popular practice of “Hinduism” bridges categories 2 and 3. MT then defines someone that actually understands concepts across these registers as a tattvAvesha (Sanskrit for “one with a deep understanding of reality” - from tattva meaning “reality/truth” and avesha meaning “entering/infusion”).

So what is the takeaway here? The tattvAvesha, when they encounter a tradition in the Hindu universe, rather than acting in a sectarian way, or in criticizing it through a secularist lens will ask first “What else does this resemble in the broader Hindu tradition?” This is how Hindus gain an appreciation for all the intellectual layers of Hindu tradition, and how Hindus (especially in the diaspora) can bond with other Hindus, by participating in each other’s traditions by understanding how they relate to each other and to the timeless knowledge in the Vedas.

In an unrelated thread, Angirasashrestha below inadvertently resembles himself to be a tattvAvesha. He identifies a tradition from rural Andhra Pradesh (Category 3 - folk ritual) and links to a pure Vedic concept (Category 1 - Vedic ritual) and then later links to the Saiva agamas (Category 2, non-Vedic Sanskritic ritual).

Many will make an argument that tribal traditions are non-Hindu, and Hindus are often put on the backfoot because a tribal tradition may not be mentioned in the Vedas or other Sanskritic texts. However, Angirasashrestha through his example, and Manasataramgini through his framework, provide a blueprint for Hindus to assert the continuity of their tradition across intellectual registers. May we all become tattvAvesha and continue to build a stronger Hindu community.

Hinduphobia Highlight: Religious Nationalism Tour

In a country where Islamic terrorism and White Nationalism are two of the most dangerous and deadly ideologies, and one with a Northern neighbor where Khalistani terrorism is a deadly ideology comes the “Bay Area Religious Nationalism Tour”, a collaboration between: The New York State Council of Churches, the Indian American Muslim Council, and the White Christian Nationalisms Task Force focused on the “Weaponization of Hinduism in Northern California”.

This sort of insidious Hinduphobic handshake between leftist wokes and Islamist and Christian bigots is part of a movement to salt the earth against any expression of Hinduism. This tour also stops at a Sikh temple known for Khalistani sympathizers. Groups associated with these clowns have claimed things like Bal Vihar classes and parades featuring temples are dangerous religious nationalism. This puts a target on the back of the Hindu community.

Unsurprisingly the fraud group “Hindus for Human Rights” (HfHR) has not condemned this Hinduphobic tour. It is incumbent for Hindus to call these people out consistently as the bigots they are. Make sure that people know these folks are bigots, and that so-called “Hindus” like those in HfHR do not represent the Hindu community.

Aesthetic: Hindu temple in Maharashtra

Week 308: Data on Places of Worship, Next-Gen Hindu narratives, Aesthetic

Modern Hindu Content - 11/09/2025

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: data on places of worship, the narratives shaping next generation Hindus, and an aesthetic!

Religion Highlight: Places of Worship Between Religions

Via Anurag Mairal on X

This chart of places of worship per capita comparing religions in the United States and India is interesting because it shows just how few Hindu temples there are in both countries, relative to the Hindu populations. It also highlights an interesting truth, borne out by land records. In India today, the three biggest landowners are: The Government of India, the Catholic Church (Christian), and the Waqf Boards (Muslim). The latter two groups benefited considerably from British and Islamic colonialism respectively.

More insight into the data used available here.

Diaspora Highlight: The Narratives Shaping Next Generation Hindus

As new generations of Hindu Americans are born in the United States, the Hindu community will have to reckon with how Hinduism is practices and transmitted across generations. More to come in the coming weeks on this topic. The first essay we highly encourage everyone to read is by Professor Vamsee Juluri and author C. Ragothama Rao titled “Creating a new ‘Mamdania’: Without their narrative, Hindu Americans have no future” - and available at: https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/creating-new-mamdania-hindu-americans-future-cultural-identity-13948914.html

One of the most interesting parts of the piece is the paragraph below. It talks about the abject failure of Hindu educational programs to equip Hindu children to refute anti-Hindu political tropes, leading to many Hindu children to graduate from temple and religious programs to become Hinduphobes themselves!

“A Hindu student activist recently commented that many of the South Asian student activist groups on their campus who frequently rally against Hindutva, Modi, Israel, and so on, happen to have been dutiful weekend Bal Vihar/Bal Vikas-type children themselves.”

Unsurprisingly, as a college professor, Juluri recommends that more Hindus get familiar with some the intellectual philosophers whose work can help Hindus equip themselves with the rhetorical and philosophical tools to defend their worldview and practice in an intellectual way.

“While many better-informed Hindus in America are now aware of the work of Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee (the trope of the Brahmin, or greedy priest, as a “caricature of a rabbi drawn in brown chalk”, for instance), S N Balagangadhara, Prakash Shah, D Venkat Rao and other humanities and social science scholars in professional academia, and know that many things modern Hindu gurus and politicians and parents and volunteer teachers parrot are actually flawed, untruthful propaganda tropes, the damage continues to be done, weekend and after weekend.”

The latter part of that paragraph shows that there is more work to do. We at Eternal Path are forged from that fire of being not educated by our temples and community organization, and of being forced to answer directly to Hinduphobic tropes thrown at us in popular discourse and the educational system. Remember that the back issues of this blog are a treasure trove for narratives, thinking, and information that can help the Hindu community progress in its jnana yoga (the quest for knowledge) and its quest for building sangathan (community) - and we encourage you to step into the archives here https://eternalpath.substack.com/archive

We also encourage all our readers to fully read and inculcate learnings from the Juluri-Rao piece, and to send it around widely. Available at: https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/creating-new-mamdania-hindu-americans-future-cultural-identity-13948914.html

Aesthetic: Diya

Week 307: Ecumenicalism, Ambedkarites on Religion, Aesthetic!

11/02/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: the need for Ecumenicalism, Ambekarites on Religion, and an Aesthetic!

Religion Highlight: The need for Ecumenicalism

Ubhayavidyā (उभयविद्या).—two-fold sciences; i. e. religious knowledge and knowledge about worldly affairs, making an ubhayavidvAn someone who knows about both religious texts and the outside world and can draw connections between the two. manasataramgini (MT) has a great post here outlining how oftentimes people who know a ton about the mechanics of the Sanskrit language do not know anything about Hinduism and vice-versa. More commentary after the screenshot.

MT is highlighting at the end of his statement that it is important as Hindus, unless fully initiated by a guru in a certain sect, to maintain an understanding of the main sects, teachers, and movements and the basics of what they believe. It is concurrently important, for Hindu sects, to focus on their commonalities and where they do derive legitimacy from the Vedas. In short, a Hindu ecumenicalism - the concept that Hindus of different sects should seek to understand and cooperate with each other.

Meme Highlight: Ambedkarites and Religion

Just a friendly reminder that Ambedkarites are Hinduphobic scum and Buddhism is a false cult. Unsubscribe if you’re stupid enough to think otherwise.

Aesthetic: Hindu Temple, Bhaktapur, Nepal

Week 306: Telugu-Odia cultural Exchange, Buddhist diets, aesthetic!

Modern Hindu Content - 10/25/2025

Welcome to Eternal Path! this week we feature Telugu-Odia cultural exchange, Buddhist diets, and an aesthetic!

History Highlight: Telugu-Odia Cultural Exchange

Religion Highlight: Buddhists Eating Brahmin Flesh

Via @viprabuddhi on X

Readers of Eternal Path know that we are, to put it lightly, critics of Buddhism. Ultimately any religion that rejects the authority of the Vedas is bad. We’ve highlighted in a few previous issues, many other issues with Buddhism:

Aesthetic: Shiva Temple, Muscat, Oman

Week 305: Action, Project Mahesa, Meme, Old English Rune

10/19/2025- Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: The Importance of Action, Project Mahesa, a meme, and an Old English style Vishnu rune!

Action Highlight: The Importance of Action

A take from the ocean of knowledge, that is @GhorAngirasa

Oftentimes, when prolific Hindu posters, whether on X/Twitter, Facebook, or even WhatsApp share some sort of Hinduphobic incident or concept, people will say stuff like “We Hindus need XYZ”, implicitly asserting that the jobs of: articulating Hindu interests, communicating and educating about Hinduism, and developing resources for the Hindu community are someone else’s responsibility. GhorAngirasa’s words, while aimed at Indian Hindus, certainly ring true with regards to the Hindu diaspora as well. If you see a Hinduphobic post on social media, comment about how inaccurate it is. If there is a Hinduism topic you know about, write a blogpost about it. If your community or the children in your community come across questions always asked about Hinduism, make a quick set of bullet points to address it. Don’t think that Hinduism is someone else’s job.

Resource Highlight: Project Mahesa

The Shiva Agamas are a body of canonical text in Shaivite Hinduism at the center of defining the universe, rituals, practices, philosophy, and epistemology, among other things of Shaivite Hindus. Project Mahesa is a group we recently learned about focused on preserving the Shiva Agamas, as well as transcribing, translating, and publishing the texts. Much of the Shiva Agamas currently are on palm leaf manuscripts so digitalization is especially important to their preservation and promotion.

They are currently in the data collection phase of their work and the team includes religious practitioners, religious schools, laypeople, and technology professionals working together to codify this knowledge for all our benefit. To learn more, visit their website at: https://projectmahesa.com/

Meme Highlight:

Aesthetic: Old English Vishnu Runes