Hindu ideas evolved over thousands of lifetimes. We don't have the patience for

[Guest guest]

Hindu Lite

USA TODAY (February 16, 2006)

 

Throw another ingredient in the American spirituality blender.

 

Pop culture is veering into Hinduism — sort of. Call it a Hindu-esque

sampling of the flavor, images and style of a 6,000-year-old faith -

but with no actual theology involved.

 

" This is how the culture manages everything, " says Luis Gonzalez-

Reimann, who teaches Southeast Asian studies and religious studies at

the University of California-Berkeley. " Remember [the TV

show] 'Dharma & Greg'? "

 

That 1997 sitcom featured a free-spirited gal, named Dharma by her

hippie parents. Forget the Hindu idea of dharma as a way of living

that leads to spiritual advancement. It just sounded flip.

 

The latest sign of infatuation with the Hindu-esque is NBC's new

Thursday night hit, " My Name Is Earl " . It starts with a mangled take

on the concept of karma as the low-life main character tries to

reverse a lifetime of scamming and stealing by undoing a life-list of

misdeeds. [see SIDEBAR below]

 

That's a slick, quick notion of karma, rather than a true reflection

of the Hindu idea of action and reaction as the " neutral, self-

perpetuating law of the inner cosmos, " says Hindu monk Sannyasin

Arumugaswami, editor of Hinduism Today magazine.

 

Then there's Alicia Keys warbling in her song 'Karma', " It's called

karma, baby. And it goes around. What goes around comes around. What

goes up must come down. "

 

But " that isn't karma, " gripes Shoba Narayan, Hindu columnist for the

spirituality website Beliefnet.com. " That is Newton's Law of

Physics. "

 

Watch for reincarnation Hindu-esque style if an Ashton Kutcher-

produced sitcom lands on TV in the fall. " For Pete's Sake " is

actually an interfaith goof: St. Peter plays bouncer at the Pearly

Gates, sending five main characters off to rebirth instead of hell,

garbling both Christian and Hindu theology.

 

After all, there's no law that TV or movies must teach correct

doctrine, says Dick Staub, a writer on faith and culture for

Christianity Today online.

 

Yoga, the 5,000-year-old Hindu physical and meditative discipline, is

everywhere now. Yoga Journal says 31% of Americans who have tried it

say they're seeking " spiritual development. "

 

But authentic Hindu yoga schooling is outnumbered by variations more

focused on six-pack abs or non-denominational inner serenity. One

entrepreneur hits every trend button with DVDs teaching Kabbalah

Yoga, borrowing very loosely from Jewish mysticism.

 

Celebrities long have had an affinity for mystical mishmash. Shirley

MacLaine, joking about her many lives, is no longer news.

 

Kutcher, who once sported a " Jesus Is My Homeboy " T-shirt, wed Demi

Moore in a Kabbalah-esque ceremony before veering toward the Hindu-

esque. And Britney Spears brought her 4-month-old son to be blessed

at a Hindu temple in Malibu, Calif., last month.

 

No one begrudges a blessing.

 

" Hinduism is a complicated and beautiful religion, but much more

complicated to adopt as a lifestyle, particularly in our short-cut

culture, " says California author Mark Hawthorne, who writes about

hidden Hindu elements in popular culture for Hinduism Today magazine.

 

But believers object when riffs plunder serious spiritual teachings

or venerable images.

 

Hindu groups' complaints led to cutting Sanskrit chanting from an

orgy scene in the 1999 film " Eyes Wide Shut " . The American Hindu

Anti-Defamation Coalition protested a Chicago strip club that put

Hindu deity masks on its dancers, fashion retailers who slapped god

and goddess images on underwear and the soles of shoes, and the

portrayal of Hare Krishnas as a gang forcing conversions in the

video game Grand Theft Auto 2.

 

It's not easy for Americans to recognize when a slight glance crosses

over to an offensive slap. Americans' exposure to expressions of

Hinduism largely is limited to travelogues of India, Bollywood song-

and-dance movies and the Fox TV cartoon antics of Apu

Nahasapeemapetilon, the Indian Kwik-E-Mart clerk on " The Simpsons " .

 

Hinduism, followed by 930 million people worldwide, 98% in India,

actually is a 19th-century term for a spectrum of ancient teachings,

just as Christianity covers denominations as varied as Catholics,

Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

As Christians are unified by the centrality of Christ, so Hindus,

divided among thousands of sects and sub-sects, are unified by " one,

all-pervasive supreme God, though he or she may be worshiped in many

forms, " says Suhag Shukla.

 

Shukla is the author of a fact sheet on the faith for the Hindu

American Foundation, a U.S.-based human rights group that defends and

explains Hinduism for an estimated 2 million Hindus in the USA.

 

The foundation finds mass media often present Hindus as polytheistic

(not) and idol worshipers (not) and confuses religious teachings with

controversial social practices such as providing a dowry.

 

" The truth is one. The wise call it by many names, " she says, quoting

the Vedas, the 6,000-year-old texts that form the basis of the faith.

 

So what else is new? Hollywood has been mocking Christian culture for

years. Recent examples:

 

• NBC's The Book of Daniel, starring a pill-popping Episcopal priest

and his family of prolific sinners, already has flopped off the

schedule.

 

• An NBC press release says an upcoming " Will & Grace " episode would

include a Christian cooking show called Cruci-fixin's. Two days after

the Christian conservative American Family Association blasted NBC,

the network said the release was mistaken and the script will contain

no such thing.

 

It could be argued that exposing the West to Hindu ideas and images —

short of blasphemy — can't be all bad if it provokes further study.

 

" Theology is understood by scriptwriters as an a la carte menu of

ideas, " says Staub. " Blenderism accepts the relativity of truth.

There's no requirement to assert any one thing is right or wrong. Put

it in the blender, and there you go. "

 

Never underestimate our ability to ignore theological distinctions,

says Jana Riess, religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly

and author of 'What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual

Guide.'

 

" Whatever we appropriate from Hinduism is fairly superficial, and

television crystallizes this for dramatic effect, " she says. " Hindu

ideas evolved over thousands of lifetimes. We don't have the patience

for this. "

 

SIDEBAR: A WESTERN TAKE ON HINDUISM

 

" My Name Is Earl " features Earl's misadventures as he tries to undo a

list of 200-plus misdeeds and bank the benefits. Karma à la

Earl: " Whether picking up trash, returning stolen merchandise or

helping a homosexual find love, it always has the same reward:

feeling good about yourself. "

 

But the point of Hinduism isn't present-day happiness. " You don't

work for the fruits of your labor; you do your best for the sake of

your spiritual duty to do the best, " says Suhag Shukla of the Hindu

American Foundation.

 

" For Pete's Sake " , Ashton Kutcher's sitcom-in-the-works, plays on

reincarnation. It's named for St. Peter, but when characters die,

they get to try life over again.

 

" The message is, when you're down here, you're here to learn a

lesson. And if you don't get it right, they keep sending you back

until hopefully you do, " Kutcher's co-producer Jason Goldberg told

Daily Variety.

 

Reincarnation is a core belief in Hinduism, says Mark Hawthorne, who

writes for Hinduism Today, but the ultimate aim is for the soul to

transcend its individuality and reunite with the one God.

 

Yoga's mind-body workout has attracted at least 16.5 million

Americans, says Yoga Journal. And, the magazine assures readers, it's

not necessary to study or follow a Hindu or Buddhist path to

practice.

 

However, authentic Hindu yoga is a 5,000-year-old discipline

" designed to change your consciousness, " says Hawthorne.

Yoga's meditative chanting is believed to carry spiritual vibrations

that bring one close to God.

 

SOURCE: USA TODAY

URL: http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-02-15-hindu-lite_x.htm