The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

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tappa
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The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by tappa » Mon Oct 02, 2017 4:23 pm

Lets use this thread to talk about the Spread of Sanatana Dharma Outside India.

Am taking some liberties here to focus on some questions which I have had for some time.
  • I for one would like to know the status of Sanatana Dharma in places where it was prevalent before e.g. Indonesia, & other South East Asian Countries.
  • Yoga seems to have played a big part in spreading widely some of the principles of Sanatana Dharma in the West. How can more be done?
  • What is the state of Sanatana Dharma among expatriate Indians who migrated many generations back e.g. Carribbean, Africa etc.
  • I know there are many organizations working to actively promote Sanatana Dharma, but how do they compare in terms of scale & effectiveness w.r.t. Abrahamic Religions
Please post away & lets be respectful of other people's opinions.

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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by Muns » Wed May 29, 2019 6:00 am

This seems to be a good thread to resurrect and post some of the ideas now in more strengthened India under Modi. For the longest time, it seemed that he really had no political will to not only fight off the enemies that we had in India, let alone trying to spread India's ideas to other nations. To some extent now, perhaps we have that leeway to start influencing a few countries in our neighborhood. Now perhaps we may be far from the ideal of Akhand Bharat, but why not try at least to sow that seed.

I am hoping that I can contribute some of the ideas and our work in the sense with regard to our immediate neighborhood being Nepal.
BR in some ways is probably too open to address an idea like this. For the longest time, I simply could not really understand the reason why we as Hindus really want the monarchy to come back in Nepal.

A couple of insights into what I feel is really going on. Somewhat of a complex topic, especially when it comes to really trying to understand the psyche of a Nepali. Okay, some of the basics, Nepal is quite a poor nation and unfortunately has had its fair share of a lengthy Civil War which really destroyed the economy. Add to that the almost complete annihilation of the monarchy and multiple successive changes in government's over the last decade. Infrastructure is severely lacking. Jobs are hard to come by resulting in many Nepalis leaving for Gulf states where they are prime targets for conversion. This often means that a lot of these polities are returning setting up either madrassahs or evangelical churches to set up shop in Nepal.
Nepal for India holds innumerable positives for India as being part of the Republic. It's massive hydro potential as well as untapped resources of the Himalayas and really acting as the de facto border between India and the ravenous Chinese.
It is the land of all spiritual origins. Yet with so much interaction between religion and cultural history, it seems that Nepalis despises Indians on a level thats almost akin to our hatred for Pakistanis. Nepalis although dirt poor are firmly patriotic in their future regarding an independent nation.
More recently Modi seem to garner a huge loyal following in Nepal, before this ended in 2015. This was really due to the infighting in Nepal especially in the Terai region. Now with yet another rudderless leadership, it does not seem too hard for Indians to maybe think about giving real leadership to Nepal and incorporating the sacred land into the Republic.

Just a primer on what I have been thinking on Nepal. What do members think?

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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by Muns » Sun Jun 30, 2019 7:14 am

I was watching this program on Orthodox Christianity really related to the birth of the Orthodox Christian church especially during the schism that occurred during the latter part of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was divided into East and West with the Eastern part really residing in Constantinople. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and its slow rebuilding via Charlemagne, the Eastern Roman empire was largely unaffected. With the advent of the Crusades, Orthodox Christianity and Constantinople was actually sacked by the Crusaders.

What most interested me about this program was the conversion of the Slavs. Greek Orthodox missionaries that traveled to Eastern Europe as well as Russia and converted Vladimir Kiev. Slavic gods had many contemporaries with Vedic gods of the time. This included Perun, who was another Indra closely resembling Thor as well. An even closer relationship with the Slavic god Radegast who looks quite close to Narasimha avatar of Vishnu. A few Vishnu statues have even been found in central Asia as well.

During communism it seems that a lot of the Orthodox Church had to delve under ground. It is only since the fall of communism that Orthodox churches are becoming more open and more aggressive in their missionary doctrine. However there seems to be a rebirth regarding Slavic native religion as well.


Radegast.
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Ancient Vishnu idol found in Russian town
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/wor ... 046928.cms

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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by vishvak » Fri Jul 05, 2019 6:25 am

Fact is that organised 'religion', not racism under sheep's clothing, should have been atleast better at selfless service for all but what with middle-eastern schisms running wild all over - with hatred much more than love - it's something else altogether.

For example, rolers are now in dominant strength with genocidal run over America's and AUS/NZ along with Europe as earlier.

In other words, it's more to do with dominating world than anything else like culture, organised xyz, ethics, etcetera etcetera. The cultural understanding has been backstabbed by the things that has claimed legitimacy

What a headline, from Reuters dated July 3, 2019
Biblical bad guys the ancient Philistines came from Europe, DNA shows
:lol:

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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by Muns » Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:43 pm

I will mention about my experience in Africa. Growing up it seemed that there was always the smaller Indian Community that was welded together. Usually it was one mandir that all that sufficed. With time however and more arriving NRI's, the communities seem to want their own congregations. In Gaborone, Botswana, this has erupted into at least five temples in the capital city.

1) The Hindu Mandir
2) Sai Center
3) ISKON
4) Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
5) Balaji Temple

Looking back I can now see that it was really about Bhakti, and there was really not so much in the way of instruction.TV channels and 80's Mahabharat and Ramayan were aired by the South African channels before satellite tv came into play.
With massive donations from the relatively successful Indian community many of these temples got built. Often times, the mandirs are usual social hangouts for the community to catch up. However with the economy being the way it is many youngsters have left the country to pursue opportunities elsewhere. This says left the older generation I feel tending to these temples.

Another factor that has played a large part is the growth of the Sai Center in seeming to unite the Hindu community as well. Hindus are well involved in charity work and well known among Africans as well for this. Unfortunately they're also quite well known for having gold which has led to them being the victims of attacks. This has on occasion even involved robbery at temples.

Unfortunately I get the feeling that overtime with lack of Youth involvement they will be slow degradation especially related to the economy. This and the fact related to worsening security situation

In South Africa, where there are 2nd to 3rd Generation Indians rooted I feel that there has been a greater growth of youth organization. However I feel that many youth in South Africa are also getting converted to more organized religions such as Christianity and Islam.

So unfortunately, my experience although valuable to me does not really give me a strong security for Indians and Hindus as positively growing with at least to Botswana. It has been approximately 8 years since I left however. Things may have changed although I'm not sure if it really for the better.

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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by Muns » Wed Nov 03, 2021 6:25 am

Indonesia: Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of former president, performs Sudhi Wadani ceremony, formally converts to Hinduism from Islam
Sukarnoputri is the daughter of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno and the third wife Fatmawati. She is also the sister of the 5th President of Indonesia Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Many Hindus believe that it is the beginning of the prophecy made by mystic Hindu priest Sabdapalon in 1478. He had cursed King Brawijaya V for converting to Islam. He had owed to return after 500 years at the time of natural disaster and political corruption. The mystic priest predicted to free the archipelago from the clutches of Islam and restore the glory of the Hindu Javanese religion.
https://www.opindia.com/2021/10/indones ... hi-wadani/


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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by Muns » Wed Nov 03, 2021 6:31 am

Rediscovering Diwali in America: Indo Guyanese celebrations

https://www.newsindiatimes.com/rediscov ... ebrations/
“In Guyana, we celebrated Diwali by going to the temple,” says Sandra Ramnaryan. “We were close to 750,000 people of Indian descent. Although most villages had temples, other resources which could help promote our cultural traditions were limited,” Ramnaryan said. “Not speaking an Indian language was one major contributor to following those traditions,” she explained, continuing, “We were not taught Hindi. We had no idea of how to read Sanskrit. Temples were our main sources of getting in touch with our roots, our culture. The priests at the temples used to teach us how to read the ‘shlokas’ with correct pronunciation.” “So the festival was confined to our homes and our temples,” she added.
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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by chetak » Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:49 am

The concerted opposition to the spread & influence of the Sanatana Dharma outside and inside India

The concerted opposition to the spread & influence of the Sanatana Dharma outside and inside India, especially when seen in the light of the dismantling global Hindutwa narrative which has been conceptualized, designed, and test marketed by the amalgamation of the desert cults, commies, and the venomous BIF wokes.

The initial proof of concept trials were test run in India, during shaheenbagh, delhi riots and now the farmer's agitation is constantly morphing, adapting, and cornering the Modi govt, aided and abetted ably by "two pillars of democracy" which have almost hamstrung the Govt.

this is truly Breaking India 2.0




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqshHaW ... V&index=82



What you can do to Expose Breaking India forces! QnA with Rahul Roushan.






00:00 - Teaser
01:52 - What is atrocity literature?
05:29 - What is critical or literary theory?
08:32 - What is postcolonial study?
08:57 - What is subaltern studies?
10:42 - What is postmodernism?

18:15 - Breaking India 2.0
23:27 - Q&A with Rahul Roushan
30:42 - Role of the leader as per in the Indian tradition
36:59 - Swadeshi Muslims

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Re: The Spread & Influence of the Sanatana Dharma Outside India

Post by Muns » Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:30 am

Interesting video below and I appreciated the debate is bringing out such an important topic. I may argue with the line of reasoning that Ramayan does not have to be religious but can be cultural. It is definitely hard to ignore the fact that Indonesia has such a long religious and cultural affinity to India for the greater part of half a millennia.

While it is the most popular Islamic nation in the world currently, there is no doubt that there is a Hindu revival centering upon Bali and Eastern Java. What I previously read, Balinese Hindus are trying to bring back Hinduism to Eastern Java especially around Yogyakarta and the Prambanan temple complex.
India would do well to support Balinese Hindus in their efforts. It’s time that we really focus on “Look East Policy” and strengthen cultural affinities with countries where we have them. Will do much to negate Chinese influences well in these countries.

All in all, some interesting prehistory although trying to make their mind more cultural than spiritual is only more harmful in the long run. Akin to making yoga nonreligious as well.


Magna Indica with Rishabh Gulati | Indonesia's Hindu revival | NewsX


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