A Hindu's Guide to Advocacy & Activism: Fighting the Narrative War

ABOUT THE BOOK:

An Empowering book that can help you be an informed, articulate and effective Hindu voice

Plus 50 specific actions and attitudes Hindus can take to get their voices heard and ensure their culture survives.

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A Hindu’s Guide to Advocacy and Activism is a comprehensive, unapologetic, yet fair review of current world events and Indian history, written by a western adoptee of Sanatana Dharma who has been actively advocating for social justice and Hindu rights for twenty years.

It thoroughly addresses the dilemmas Hindus have faced in the past and continue to face today: Hinduphobia, a biased world-media, social media, anti-Hindu politicians, fraudulent academics, Indian secularism, appropriation, conversion efforts, multiple invasions, along with the echoes of colonialism and Muslim rule.

If you are a Hindu reader, this will arm the intellectual Dharma warrior. If you are not, this book will change the way you think about Hinduism, Indic culture, and the Hindu people.

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“Sean Bradrick has provided a detailed, lucid, and in-depth manual of Hindu activism from the standpoint of the awakened Hindu mind. His book can help develop an informed and articulate Hindu voice to counter the anti-Hindu prejudices that still go unquestioned.”

—Padmashri David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)

“A wise and wonderful book, covering the cultural, historical, religious, and traditional aspects of Hindu Dharma, it debunks every Hindu myth, mostly amplified by the padris and mullahs.”

—Amit Agarwal,

Author of Swift Horses Sharp Swords: Medieval Battles Which Shook India & A Never-Ending Conflict: Episodes from Indic Resistance

“A Hindu’s Guide to Advocacy and Activism contributes an important voice and perspective to the issue of how Hindus and Hinduism are represented in contemporary discourse.”

—Jeffery D. Long, Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College; Author of Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds.

:-Contents:-

1. What is Hindu Advocacy and Activism? 27

2. A Call to Action 32

3. What Hindus Are Up Against 37

✍ Hinduphobia and Persecution 38

✍ Secularism and the Colonial Mindset 48

✍ Appropriation 52

✍ Monotheism and Faith-based Religions 63

✍ Academia and the Media 68

4. Who Hindus Are Up Against 84

✍ Christian Supremacists and Missionaries 84

✍ Radical Islamists 99

✍ American Politicians and Their Cronies 110

✍ Western Yogis 112

✍ Atheists 115

✍ Ourselves 126

5. Addressing Misconceptions 144

✍ Is Hinduism a Religion? 145

✍ Are Hindus Polytheists? 157

✍ Do Hindus Worship Idols and Cows? 161

✍ What is Karma and Reincarnation? 168

✍ Is Hinduism Patriarchal or Misogynistic? 174

✍ What is Hindutva? 180

✍ Do Hindus Mistreat Muslims? 185

✍ Do Hindus Worship Gurus? 188

✍ Why Are So Many Hindus Vegetarians? 190

✍ Why Do Hindus Have Arranged Marriages? 193

✍ Are Hindus Superstitious? 195

6. What Hindus Must Do 204

7. A Message to the Missionaries 211

8. Indian Sovereignty and American Hypocrisy 214

9. Hinduphobia in American Academia 228

10. The Abduction of Yoga Dharma 234

11. Teaching Authentic Yoga 245

✍ Limb One: The Five Yamas 252

✍ Limb Two: The Five Niyamas 252

✍ Limb Three: Asana 253

✍ Limb Four: Pranayama 253

✍ Limb Five: Pratyahara 253

✍ Limb Six: Dharana 254

✍ Limb Seven: Dhyana 254

✍ Limb Eight: Samadhi 256

12. Is Hinduism a Religion or a Way of Life? 258

13. How to Convert a Christian to Hinduism 262

✍ Slavery in the Bible 290

✍ Child Abuse and Cannibalism 290

✍ Peaceful Jesus? 292

✍ Biblical Misogyny 293

✍ God’s Threats 294

✍ Promoting Murder of All Non-believers 295

14 Varna vs. Caste 300

15. Satyameva Jayate 305

:-Preface:-

I expect this will not be an easy book to write, as it will deal with a complex subject matter involving linguistics, cultures, religions, and politics. It will be necessary to use sweeping terms and misnomers such as: God, gods, religion, Hindu, ism, caste, scripture, sin, theology, deism, etc. Different words tend to have different meanings, however slight. There are some who pay attention to linguistics and know how the loss of Sanskrit, linguistic distortion, and linguistic disorganisation have caused harm to indigenous cultures.

India and Hindu, both names given by invaders. Therefore, both names, rejected. Bharat and Sanatana Dharma, both names given by Krishna Bhagavan. Therefore, both accepted.

—Srila Prabhupada

The term ‘God’ is complicated in and of itself. It means many different things to many different people. Its meaning differs from one religion to the other and means absolutely nothing to many. It can even be a derogatory word used by parodists. It differs depending on the scriptural context it finds itself in. The etymological definition means ‘to pour’ or offer. Going deeper, it refers to both that which is offered and that which receives the offering. Within the Abrahamic traditions it is a generic word, used to describe an ambiguous deity, a vague son of God, or a mysterious prophet of God. The word ‘God’ is also a German word to describe that which is good. That does not sufficiently describe deities, nor principles of Hindu theology. Even the word ‘theology’ is probably incorrect.

It is my opinion that the term ‘God’ does not adequately describe Hindu deities and perhaps should not even be used in the Hindu lexicon if we are to be absolutely correct. Instead, Hindus might use terms such as Ishvara, Bhagavan, Brahman, Devata, Deva, or Devi. Better still, Hindus may refer to their ‘gods’ by their proper names. I expect this book to have a mostly Hindu audience, but I do hope it will be read by others. As such, I will use the word ‘God’ herein for the purpose of understanding. At the risk of losing clarity and confusing some, I will use the word with both a capital ‘G’ and a lowercase ‘g’. For reasons I hope will be apparent, I will at times place quotation marks around the expression.

Hinduism, rather Sanatana Dharma, is the original archetypal form of religion that is ironically not a religion at all in the sense of the word that most have become used to. In this tradition, ‘God’ is in and around everything, not to necessarily be found separate from the Self. This reality is closer to us than our own bones, secondarily transcendent but primarily imminent.

Those of the Abrahamic persuasion believe God to be a being in heaven, to be met in the hereafter. For Hindus, ‘God’ is everything in everyone every nanosecond of the day. Such divinity of being cannot truly be found outside of the self, until it is found within the higher Self, in a state of pristine awareness. For the individual seeker, this may begin with an idea that the fantastic is not just plausible, but also experiential. That ‘God’ is not to be found but perceived.

The Hindus Devatas are wondrous beings. The Hindu ‘God’ is not a being at all, but Brahman… pure universal consciousness and being. Brahman is in one sense, unfathomable. Yet Brahman is always present, and therefore, the most normal thing there is, the most natural thing there is. So much so that it is often overlooked.

In the West, Abrahamic adherents use the determiner ‘thou’ when addressing God. In India and her cultural realm, Hindus and others address ‘God’ using the word ‘tu’. ‘Tu’ is an informal use of the English word ‘you’. Employers use it when addressing their employees. Parents use it when speaking to their children. It used to address the Hindu Devas and Devis as well. There is a more formal and polite form of the word, but the casual form is most often used when connecting or communicating with the divine. This is not to be a show of disrespect, but a recognition of familiarity, as the whole of creation forms a part of ‘God’s’ being.

This book is not something I want to write. It is something I must write. It is necessary. I am a Sanatani who has had enough. I do hope that it will be informative, insightful, and educational. It will also be raw, unapologetic, opinionated, controversial, intense, satirical, and personal. It will be written in both a formal and a conversational manner, depending on the diverse topics being given. I am not an acharya (Vedic scholar), a great yoga master, a professor of linguistics or religion, an anthropologist, a political pundit, a historian, or a self-help author. What I am is a poet, an American adoptee of Dharma, a Kriya and Buddhi yogi, and a human rights activist. I am not an Indologist. I am just a writer who wants to address historical and current cultural, political, and social issues, as they pertain to Hinduism and Hindus. I only seek to offer my opinions, wake people up, make them think and rock the boat.

I will be attempting to draft this book in a creative, as well as in an educational fashion. The opinions and facts herein can be taken as the reader likes. I am not striving to author an anti-Christian book or an anti-Muslim book. I am not striving to write a book that holds an overly romantic view of Hinduism. There are of course, good, and bad Christians, Muslims and yes, Hindus. I will not just write what Hindus want to hear to sell copies. Some of the content will be subjective, while some will be objective. On some topics, I will have provided a definite view. On others, I will have provided various views and allowed the readers to think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. I do not like telling people what they should think, without explaining why I believe they should think in a certain manner.

What I will write and reveal regarding Christians and Muslims, will not refer to all Christians and Muslims. Most Christians are not really concerned with converting the world to their faith. Most are not consciously involved with the imperialistic tendencies of their churches. When I will speak of Christians in the book, I will be referring to the Evangelical right-wing fundamentalists. Also, when I will speak of Muslims, I will not be referring to the tolerant Islamic majority. When I speak of Muslims throughout, I will be referring to the militant and the radically minded adherent. Many Christians and Muslims in the world do not have agendas Hindus should be overly concerned with. The majority are good people, and the moral Christian or Muslim is closer to the divine than a Hindu individual who is not devout and is unscrupulous. Also, all religions have worth.

This should be a given, but I must make these sorts of preliminary apologies and disclaimers. If I do not, it is quite possible this book will never be published, for the publisher’s fear of being involved with the defamation of the Abrahamic religions, along with the threats that would follow. Any amount of vilification of Hinduism and Hindus is par for course and accepted as freedom of speech. While at the same time, criticism of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths is intolerant and off limits.

I will attempt to be pragmatic, but not overly apologetic. I am an adoptee of the great Hindu Dharma. Sanatana Dharma is my way of life. I will not apologise for any sort of bias I may have. I do not pull punches to appease delicate sensibilities. I will offer my own hypotheses, observations, and opinions. I will offer what I believe to be information based on known current events, as well as widely accepted historical and psychological facts. At the end of the day, it is up to the reader to agree with me, or to take what I will write with a grain of salt.

I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.

—Richard Feynman

Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics

I will also mention and apologise in advance for some redundancy of important topics involving Indian history and theosophy, along with some aspects of yoga and Ayurveda. I ask the reader to be patient with my recurring themes. There is a method to my madness. I will also forgo the use of footnotes. I am not authoring a dissertation to graduate from medical school. I am not attempting to prove anything to anyone. If the reader doubts any of the book’s content, we live in an age of information, so fact-checking is easy enough. Then again, we also live in an age of much disinformation. The reader can feel free to use his or her own current level of discernment.

There will be some of all faiths (including Hindus) and none, who will find this book too harsh. This is understandable. It may very well be. A book addressing social injustice cannot get lost in tranquillity.

All said and done, I am not writing this book from the frame of my own ego. I am writing from my own perspective. I am also writing from the perspective of many others. This book will be about civil rights for Hindus worldwide and the defence of their religion. This is also my religion and way of life. I love the culture and civilisation of Bharat, though it is not mine. It belongs to the indigenous. I refer to myself as a Sanatani, not a Hindustani.

Books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

—Oscar Wilde

I am writing this book more definitively, to defend Dharma and the inherent nature of reality itself. A universal truth, currently veiled by insidious forces in a world of delusion; a world we all live in. So, on one hand, I am writing from an idealistic perspective. On the other hand, I will at least attempt to be objective. I am writing it because at one time, there existed well over 1,000 Vedic schools of thought or branches of Veda in India, and only fourteen now exist. This includes the four magnificent Vedas we know today. Still, so much is lost. The physical structures, linguistics and some schools of thought have been temporarily lost. True Knowledge however, never is. May all people and our wondrous natural world find benevolence, peace, and truth.

He is the source of light in all luminaries and is entirely beyond the darkness of ignorance. He is knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge. He dwells within the hearts of all living beings.

—Bhagavad Gita, 13.18

When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect on how God created this universe, everything else seems superfluous. (Only) a manifestation of light. I have made the Bhagavad Gita as the main source of my inspiration and guide for the purpose of scientific investigation and formation of my theories.

—Albert Einstein