RMF Summary: Week of March 29 - April 4, 2013

March 29
Hindu Dharma and Homosexualiy
How does Dharma view homosexuality, transgender issues? what would be a dharmik stand on these LGBT right movements?...

Vishal shares a link on this topic: "Homosexuality and Hinduism, Arvind Sharma.pdf".

alak shares a link:
Hinduism is one of the most liberal belief systems when it comes to the treatment of Homosexuality.

Check this pdf for more details

People have considered Homosexuality to be a western import but that is not the case. Indians did not harbour prejudice against the notion till they were brought into a Christian education systems imparting Anglo-Saxon values.

April 1
US president Barack Obama throws weight behind yoga
Ganesh shares: The White house has wholeheartedly embraced Yoga as a worthy physical activity at a time some schools in America are railing against the ancient Indian practice, saying it promotes Hinduism.

Though this may sound great news at a time when a Vatican exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth called yoga "evil", as has been discussed, yoga, thanks to over-zealous, self styled yoga promoting Hindu guru's in their quest for commercial benefits have ensured making yoga just a physical activity (As has been discussed quite a few times in this group). And this statement by US President Barrack Obama in support of yoga is only going to see more such over-zealous Hindu guru's selling yoga using sameness theory, furthering the process of digestion...

We will cover this thread below in a separate post.
April 1
Is Mr. Devdutt Pattanaik plagiarizing Rajiv Malhotra's Work???
Namaste, I came across Devdutt Pattanaik'

s speech on YouTube on "Why the West sees India as Chaos?". The ideas he is talking about are striking similar to ...

April 4
Musician John Cage and the Indian connection

Subra shares a link: ...One remarkable aspect of Cage's music, derived from his close study of Indian traditions, was the notion of "disinterestedness" — which is not to be confused with "indifference."

... By the 1950s, however, Cage had started to drift away from the Indian spiritual traditions as he became more deeply immersed in the work of D. T. Suzuki....

Wikipedia notes:
"..Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started
composing in 1951"

"...Cage accepted the goal of music as explained to him by [Gita] Sarabhai: "to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences"...."

this was a link in a newer article that talks of 'Eastern Philosophy':  The Science of How Your Mind-Wandering Is Robbing You of Happiness



April 4
Lotus Bank in Detroit: A Case Study in Difference Anxiety?
Karthik shares: ".. I came across this rather shocking story in the news. A bank called Lotus Bank in Detroit, founded by Indian Americans, with mostly Indian-Americans on its board of directors and mostly Indian-American customers, is being sued for civil rights violations by two of its Indian-American customers.

Reason? The extreme racism with which three of the bank's white employees have treated Indian-Americans.

The outcome is that none of the three white employees accused of racial discrimination against Indians have been sacked. And that's where I believe the Difference Anxiety comes in. I would love to hear more about this from anyone in the Detroit area, or who happens to be familiar with Lotus Bank. It would also be great to hear exactly why the bank's Indian-American directors have chosen this path of forgiveness.... 

White Executives Working For Asian Indian Bank OpenlyBerate Indian Bosses and Customers