USA, August 1, 2011 (by Foram Mehta for Hindu Yuva): My parents emigrated from India to the U.S. before I was five years old, and we moved frequently from place to place. I had little to relate to, as most of my peers were Christians. My favorite school subject was Social Studies, since India and Hinduism were always discussed.
But my friends’ questions displayed gross misconceptions. “Wow, cool! All these weird-looking Gods and Goddesses with so many heads and arms! You really believe in all of them?” kids would ask me. “Some of them look like monsters from scary movies!”
Many Hindu children are still dealing today with the misrepresentation and subsequent belittlement of our religion. Western cultures have disrespected Hinduism in their public education, media, and marketable fashions and trends, making it appear to be a myth-based, pagan religion.
Misconceptions held and propounded by scholars and educators are dangerous and destructive. Many textbooks and reference books include incorrect and misleading information about Hinduism, which is absorbed indiscriminately by children’s sponge-like minds.
Schoolchildren read statements such as “Durga and Kali are terrible and extremely bloodthirsty forms of this goddess” (The Ancient South Asian World, published by Oxford University Press). Glencoe-McGraw Hill’s text Discovering Our Past – Ancient Civilizations describes the Mahabharata as “…like adventure movies of today [that tell] thrilling stories about great heroes.”
These statements are inaccurate and superficial. Jesus’s crucifixion is never referred to as a “gripping, emotional roller coaster,” so why use such wording when the religion is Hinduism? Furthermore, describing Durga and Kali with such adjectives as “terrible” and “bloodthirsty” paints vivid pictures in impressionable minds of demons and monsters like those straight out of fairytales. It’s no wonder that Hindus and non-Hindus, alike, assume that Hinduism is a pagan religion when important figures are described as elaborate and animalistic murtis. Monsters can’t be worshipped as God, so the very idea of Hindu teachings seems ridiculous.
Similarly, the word “erotic” is frequently applied to Krishna and Radha. Jasneshwari Dev, a spiritual teacher at Barsana Dham Temple in Austin, Texas has written letters to publishers conveying the Hindu community’s disappointment in such inaccurate descriptions in hopes of better educating Westerners about Hinduism. “God’s love is beyond the conception of the human mind,” she says. “Hinduism teaches that God is beyond all such human emotions of lust, anger, greed, jealously. The use of this word to describe God is highly offensive to Hindus.”
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