Welcome to the inaugural issue of Eternal Path Musings, a newsletter for the modern and curious Hindu, featuring highlights around religious texts, practice, history, politics, people, and ways to better our engagement and personal progress.
Sect Highlight: Shakta Hinduism
Shakta Hinduism is one of the four main sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavite, Saivite, and Smartha. Shakta is focused on shakti, the feminine life-force and reveres Kali or Parvati, depending on the occasion and the form. Himalayan Academy has a short summary here on Shaktism. It is arguably the least well-documented and most esoteric of the four main sects, drawing from the Vedas, Upanishads, and Puranas as other sects do, but also from Tantric texts. Shaktism is largely prevalent in Eastern India (including but not limited to: Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Tripura) and Nepal.
Navratri is the most famous of the Shakta celebrations, though also celebrated in some form by members of all sects. The Shakta philosophy is generally advaita (nondualistic), seeing the divine mother in everything, and not as a separate force from her creation.
Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay has written a great series of articles on IndiaFacts which serve to demystify the Tantras, which are the most “mysterious” part of Shakta Hinduism (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).
Resource Highlight: Upword
Upword (official website) is a group based out of India creating high-quality visual and video content for issues pertaining to Hindus and Hinduism. They have material in English and Hindi (likely with more to come) and a large body of video content already. Additionally they are active on Instagram and Facebook.
Below is an example of their well-researched and well-articulated video content. The percentage of Hindus in Bangladesh has precipitously declined since the 1970’s and now is firmly below ~10%. Bangladeshi Hindu women have been the victims of mass rapes, and Hindu properties are often stolen.
Food For Thought
Ponder these questions with folks over the given week.
What do you know about the plight of Pakistani, Afghan, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi Hindus?
What do you plan to do to learn about their plight and increase awareness?
How do you and people you talk to think Hindus can and should maintain their traditions in the midst of a hostile culture?
Person Highlight: Pranat Ghanimat
Pranat Ghanimat (Dari: پراناته غنیمت) also spelled as “Pran Nath Ghanimat” was a famous Afghan singer from the mid-1900s and a Hindu. Pranat was a well known-singer prior to the Soviet-Mujahedin war in the 1980s and was a disciple of Afghanistan’s most famous classical expert, Ustad Mohammed Sarahang. Afghan classical music is largely based on the Hindustani classical tradition. While not much information is available on Pran Nath in English, many of his recordings in the Dari (Farsi) language and one interview (also in Dari) are on YouTube. It appears that Pran Nath’s daughter Rajni was a talented poet in her own right (according to this Dari article naming three famous Hindu/Sikh women in Afghanistan), but unfortunately the family had to flee Afghanistan due to persecution of Hindus, which ramped up after the 1970s.
Action
The Hindu American Foundation is hosting a webinar talking about goals for 2020 and how Hindus can get involved in their communities. The Webinar is Sunday, December 22nd from 5:30pm - 6:30pm Pacific Time/8:30-9:30pm Eastern Time and registration is available here.
Aesthetic
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