Book 3 of 2013: Hinduism A very Short Introduction, by Kim Knott

I imagine that many yuppie types, like me, think of yoga only as American yoga classes: mostly geared towards fitness types with a few new-age type people sprinkled in.  I’ve only been to a few yoga classes, and did find it interesting from a physical perspective, but never really thought too much about any spiritual aspects.  I did not know until reading this book that what I thought of as “yoga” is actually Hatha Yoga, and along with Karma Yoga, the path of action, Raja yoga, the royal path (deep and profound meditation), Jnana yoga, the path of knowledge, and other types of yoga form one of the 6 philosophical systems called Darshana that are present in Hinduism.

For someone who is used to the highly structured nature of Western Christianity, Hinduism now appears to me as more of a regional culture that varies all over India and other parts of southeast Asia.  These variations all appear to have common threads, such as the divinely revealed Vedic scriptures, but the text gives examples of how the emphasis that is placed on which text, or which avatar (Krishna, Shiva, etc) is chiefly recognized as the incarnation of the godhead is not assured.  Knott raises questions regarding whether Hinduism is a religion, a regional culture, polytheistic, monotheistic, and touches on how Hinduism has influenced and been influenced by modern India, women, and the world outside of it's traditional geographical reaches.

To be clear, this is a 120 page book that I can imagine might be assigned as a quick read in the first week of a One-Oh-One college class.  More than anything, this Cliff-Notes-ish little $3 HPB impulse buy made me want to learn more about something I already had an interest in.  Reading this sort of book only made me more aware of how little I know.

Here are some of my favorite bits:

• The Ramayana television teries was a prime-time soap opera re-telling of an epic tale of the same name that was central to Hinduism (the epic, not the soap opera), and from what I gathered, it was the "Dallas" of India.
• When the Maharaja of Jaipur was invited to the coronation of Edward the VII in London, he took dried fruit, rice, cows, water from the Ganges, and even dirt from India along on a ritually consecrated ship for the journey.  These preparations allowed him to maintain his sacred person, fulfill his duty, and keep his subjects out of potential harm.
• "Tat tvam asi!"  is a Sanskrit phrase that is translated as "That's how you are!"  from the Chandogya  Upanishad (one of several Sacred Upanishads).  The phrase comes from a son being told by a father to drink from each corner of a container of water that has had salt placed in it.  The salt is everywhere, and it encapsulates the idea that the self  of each person is the essence of all other people and of the world and is all one life-force.  Naturally, not all schools of Hindu thought agree with this...

I don't know that I would recommend this book in particular to any random person, but I will recommend grabbing a book you think you might have only read if it were assigned back in college.  The book may be the academic equivalent of an episode  of  PBS' NOVA, but I love NOVA! and watching that still beats watching a re-run of "When Zoo Animals Attack IV" in my not so humble opinion :-)