Table of Contents - Indra's NetIndra’s Net

	Preface: Why this book	xiii
	Introduction: Debating Hinduism	1
	Overview	1
	Two opposing camps: continuity vs. discontinuity; unity vs. disunity	2
	We are all jewels in Indra’s Net	4
	Indra’s Net and Buddhism	13
	Influences on modern society	15
	Who is a Hindu?	18
	Hinduism: Surfing Indra’s Net	20
	Framing the debate in three disciplines	22

	Part 1 Purva PaksHa
	(Examination of My Opponents’ Positions)

1.	Eight Myths to be Challenged	29
	Myth 1: India’s optimum state is Balkanization	30
	Myth 2: Colonial Indology’s biases were turned into Hinduism	31
	Myth 3: Hinduism was manufactured and did not grow organically	32
	Myth 4: Yogic experience is not a valid path to enlightenment and tries to copy Western science	33
	Myth 5: Western social ethics was incorporated as seva and karma yoga	35
	Myth 6: Hinduism had no prior self-definition, unity or coherence	36
	Myth 7: Hinduism is founded on oppression and sustained by it	38
	Myth 8: Hinduism presumes the sameness of all religions	39
	Summary of both sides of the debate	39

2.	The Mythmakers: a Brief History	44
	My wake-up call: How I discovered the myth	44
	Missionary origins	46
	Founders of the Myth of Neo-Hinduism	48
	The Chorus Line	55

3.	Paul Hacker’s construction of ‘neo-Hinduism’	62
	Initial romance with Advaita Vedanta and its personal influences on Hacker	62
	Hacker starts his attack on contemporary Hinduism	64
	Alleging political motives and appropriations from the West	68
	Hacker on Vivekananda and the West	70
	Allegation 1: Importance of Direct Experience	72
	Allegation 2: ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ ethic	74
	Allegation 3: Nationalist agenda	77
	Allegation 4: Inclusivism and sameness	79

4.	Agehananda Bharati on Neo-Hinduism as a ‘Pizza Effect’	81
	Pizza Effect: Indians copy Westerners	82
	Hinduism deviates from Indian tradition	84
	Fear of sexual impotence drives neo-Hindus	85
	Bharati’s definition of neo-Hinduism tenets	86

5.	Ursula king’s bridge from Hacker to rambachan	88

6.	Rambachan’s argument to fragment Hinduism	96
	Using Shankara to shoot down Vivekananda	96
	Issues with methodology	102
	Essentializing Shankara	107
	Challenging the direct experience of the rishi-yogi	110
	Is Rambachan fixated on Christian assumptions?	113
	Allegation that yoga makes people less rational and intelligent	117
	Political allegations	118
	Western scholars’ support for Rambachan	119
	Many scholars disagree with Rambachan	120

7.	The Myth Goes viral	125
	Richard King	126
	Brian Pennington	133
	Peter van der Veer, Sheldon Pollock and others	137
	Hindu leaders echo the chorus	143
	Some academic defenders of contemporary Hinduism	145

	Part 2 uTTara PaksHa
	(My response)

8.	Historical Continuity and Colonial Disruption	153
	Traditional categories of astika (those who affirm) and nastika (those who do not affirm)	154
	Pre-Colonial Hindu Unifiers: Example of Vijnanabhikshu	159
	From Vijnanabhikshu to Vivekananda	162
	The colonial disruption	163
	European debates: Are the Hindus Aryans or Pantheists?	165
	Reduction into ‘Indian schools of thought’	167
	Post-modern and post-colonial distortions	171
	Challenging the Neo-Hinduism thesis	172

9.	Traditional Foundations of social Consciousness	174
	Western methodological straitjacket misapplied to Vivekananda	177
	The ‘world-negating’ misinterpretation of social problems	181
	Origin of Christian Philanthropy	183
	Conditions that led to the revival of Hindu seva	185
	Sahajanand Swami and social activism in contemporary Hinduism	187
	Swami Vivekananda’s sevayoga	191
	Challenging the Neo-Hinduism thesis	197

10.	Harmonizing vedanta and Yoga	198
	Vedanta’s evolution at the time of Shankara	201
	Theory of two realities	206
	Yoga and classical texts	208
	Shankara’s mentor’s writing	209
	Upanishads	209
	Bhagavad-Gita	211
	Shankara’s own kind of yoga: cognitive shift without action	213
	Systematic withdrawal from particular to universal	213
	Dissolving the text/experience gap	215
	Difference from Patanjali’s Yoga	217
	No causation is involved	218
	Flexibility on anubhava	218
	Summarizing Shankara’s posture on anubhava/yoga	222
	Respect for yoga	222
	Yoga as preparation for higher practices	223
	Comparing different levels of meditation, dhyana	224
	Reasons for rejecting yoga at times	225
	Advaita Vedanta beyond Shankara	226
	Four historical periods	227
	Vivekachudamani	229
	Other later texts	231
	Challenging the Neo-Hinduism thesis	232

11.	Mithya, Open architecture and Cognitive science	233
	The unity of all existence	235
	Purna	235
	Mithya as Relative Reality	236
	Samavesha principle of integrality	240
	Common toolbox and open architecture	242
	Adhyatma-vidya	246
	Rishis and cognitive science	251
	Robustness of the ecosystem over time	254
	Challenging the Neo-Hinduism thesis	259

12.	Digestion and self-Destruction	260
	The metabolism of digestion	260
	The flea market of modern gurus	264
	Digestion and the neo-Hinduism thesis	268
	Conclusion: The ‘Poison Pill’ for Protection of Hinduism	269
	Hinduism’s predicament today	270
	The Porcupine Defence and the Poison Pill Protection	273
	Astika and Nastika: Redefining the terms of the interfaith debate	278
	The criteria for nastika: Principles that must be rejected	283
	History Centrism	283
	Disembodied knowing and self-alienation	284
	Synthetic cosmology	287
	Fear of chaos	288
	Controversial Implications of the Astika/Nastika Approach	289
	Refuting the myth of sameness	295
	Poison pill versus digestion	300
	How the poison pill strategy works	303

	Notes	310
	Bibliography	351
	Acknowledgements	363

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