Guest guest Posted March 7, 2002 Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Braja wrote: > > When Srila Prabhupada came to the West, people were attracted to Indian > > philosophy with naive openness. It is not the case anymore. For example, > > in the sixties, everyone wanted a guru; today it is not the case. > > I'm not sure I'd agree with that summation. Gurus seem to very much in > fashion these days, and the interest in all things Indian is enjoying quite > a revival. Time magazine recently did a big spiel on Yoga, which a surprising number of wealthy, famous, and influential people practice devotedly (if also quietly); some are even disarmingly conversant with it's traditional theory too--and know these Sanskrit sources. Ayurveda tags along this trend. Indian classical music (both theory and practice) is now taught in mainstream universities in both America and Europe, as are the South Asian languages. Indian restaurants can be found almost anywhere. There aren't fewer gurus than in the sixties and seventies either, though they're usually no better than the old ones; many Hollywood people still buy pet gurus too, and there will always be naive seekers, since there's one born every minute. Hindu temples built from scratch and designed on principles of traditional Hindu architecture exist worldwide today, although they are patronized mostly by NRIs, like ISKCON itself. Vastu-silpa also seems a growing interest (and business) among Westerners. With American based economic neocolonialism now firmly rooted in India, all this will probably continue for some time to come. MDd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 7, 2002 Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 At 01:23 PM 3/7/02 -0800, M. Tandy wrote: >On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Braja wrote: > > > When Srila Prabhupada came to the West, people were attracted to Indian > > > philosophy with naive openness. It is not the case anymore. For example, > > > in the sixties, everyone wanted a guru; today it is not the case. > > > > I'm not sure I'd agree with that summation. Gurus seem to very much in > > fashion these days, and the interest in all things Indian is enjoying quite > > a revival. > > Time magazine recently did a big spiel on Yoga, which a surprising >number of wealthy, famous, and influential people practice devotedly (if >also quietly); some are even disarmingly conversant with it's traditional >theory too--and know these Sanskrit sources. Ayurveda tags along this >trend. Indian classical music (both theory and practice) is now taught in >mainstream universities in both America and Europe, as are the South Asian >languages. Indian restaurants can be found almost anywhere. There aren't >fewer gurus than in the sixties and seventies either, though they're >usually no >better than the old ones; many Hollywood people still buy pet gurus too, and >there will always be naive seekers, since there's one born every minute. >Hindu temples built from scratch and designed on principles of traditional >Hindu architecture exist worldwide today, although they are patronized mostly >by NRIs, like ISKCON itself. Vastu-silpa also seems a growing interest >(and business) among Westerners. With American based economic neocolonialism >now firmly rooted in India, all this will probably continue for some time to >come. Well said. Thanks, prabhu. Babhru das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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