Welcome to Eternal Path Musings, a weekly 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.
This issue features: YouTube resources (for the social distancing weeks), a biography of an Indonesian Hindu political leader, and an aesthetic
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Resource Highlight: YouTube Resources
For those practicing Social Distancing and for those who aren’t but are looking for good video content, here are some of our favorite video channels for Hinduism content! Make sure to subscribe to them!
Govardhan Math - Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati gives answers to questions on Hinduism and discourses (link is to English subtitle playlist)
Kauai Hindu Monastery - The Saivite Hindu monastery, which runs the magazine Hinduism Today, has fantastic English language content on religious topics
Upword - Known for their powerful instagram content, Upword also features engaging videos on political and sociological topics concerning Hindus
History Under Your Feet - Great series of English language videos on Hindu religious figures and generals from Indian military history
Chinmaya Mission - The popular Hindu religious movement puts out articulate videos in English regarding religious topics and charity efforts
Rajiv Malhotra - Has great content both in English and Hindi with conversations ranging from Hinduism, academia, Indian history, and sociology
Shaivam - Has great content (mostly in Tamil) on Tamil Saivite philosophy, festivals, and music
Arsha Bodha Center - Swami Tadatmananda provides discourses on Hinduism topics, focused on the Advaita Vedanta tradition
The Sanskrit Channel - Resources for learning Sanskrit, and features on Sanskrit texts and unlocking the real meaning of Sanskrit slokas
People Highlight: Ida Bagus Mantra
Ida Bagus Mantra was a Hindu leader in Indonesia. He was born in a Brahmin family in 1928 to a father who was a pandit. Later, he came to India for graduate studies and his doctoral thesis from Visva-Bharati University in 1957 was on "Hindu Literature and Religion in Indonesia." Soon after, he helped found the organization (with Gedong Bagus Oka) called “Parisada Hindu Dharma Bali” (later “Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia” which roughly translates to “Indonesian Council for the Hindu Religion”) which fought for recognition of Hinduism in Indonesia. At that point, Muslim leaders did not recognize Hinduism as a valid monotheistic faith. Their efforts were successful, and in 1962 Hinduism became a recognized religion in Indonesia.
In 1963, he founded the “Maha Widya Bhawana Hindu Dharma Institute” which served as a center for learning about Hinduism in Indonesia.
He went to serve as Director General of Culture in Indonesia from 1968-1978, helping push the idea of developing “cultural centers” (Indonesian: pusat kebudayaan). The goal was for Indonesia to imitate European UNESCO sites in developing areas of the country which would be arts centers for developing local artists and later to use these centers to drive tourism.
In 1978, he became Governor of Bali. One of his first acts was to help Bali develop its native culture and Hindu religion further to increase its prominence. He then launched the Bali Arts Festival (PKB) program, which is held annually for a month. He passed away in 1995 having been a colossal force in the development of modern Hinduism in Indonesia.
Aesthetic: Sundanese Hindu Traditional Dance
