Kicked Out of Hinduism

Dear Angela,

I had an occasion for a good deal of dreaming this last evening. You see, the Cable had been cut off. At first I thought it was a general outage, but when I called it in I was taken aback when the Service Technician told me he was unaware of any outages in my area. Ah oh! So I went outside to look at the wiring box. Wiring boxes in Guam are open to the world and it is usually easy enough to check on the condition of one’s own cable, provided on knows where to look. But since everything is open to sun and the weather, marking tags can get blown off or bleached out. Anyway, now it seems that suddenly they decided to become modern and put a metal door and lock on the Wire Box. Walking back to my apartment this nice gentleman who probably sits outside all day long informed me that the Cable Truck had been there earlier and he had gotten the distinct impression that they were untangling a bunch of illegal splices and splitters. The horrifying suspicion came upon me that these minimum wage imbeciles had disconnected my cable during all of their enthusiasm. I called the Cable People back with this insight and they confirmed it… that it was likely that that is exactly what might have happened, but that it was perhaps too late to call back any trucks when Friday evening was already somewhat advanced. So I went to sleep… it couldn’t have been later than 7 o’clock. And I slept until about 8 the next morning… remembering a few dreams.

There was one dream in which I was participating in a Bus Tour of Hinduism (let us pretend that that makes any sense). Now, remember that I have been something of an outside expert on Hinduism, having been initiated into several forms of Yoga, studied the philosophies even in the Universities, and having lived under the disciplines of several Gurus. Indeed, I have forgotten the meanings of more Sanskrit words than most people will ever learn. Anyway, a subject came up with which the Tour Guide was only thinly familiar and when I began to speak up to elucidate it in more detail and color, the Tour Guide slowly and discretely waved her finger in a negative way, to quiet me, while pointing with her other hand to a ring on my left thumb. Apparently this Left Thumb Ring was my Hindu Membership Status Ring, and the thin slot that was supposed to contain a small metal stamped seal of authentication, well, it had been chiseled out. I was no longer ‘approved and certified’.

Well, I did not have to think about it long. I simply took the ring off and threw it away, making it do a loud ‘clunk’ in the nearest trash can. If Hinduism did not want me, then I did not want it. Good riddance!

The dream did not fixate there, however. It turns out that there were some really nice ladies on the bus. One tall thin lady with an intelligent and benevolent energy was interested in me, but for a moment I was distracted by this one little high energy blond girl who was somewhat remarkable for having some odd facial hair (only in a dream can a girl be both attractive and have odd facial hair, but the hair was long and straight like hair from the head). Anyway, I realized that the intelligent and kind lady was more my type. Since I was no longer a welcome member of Hinduism, I made a gift of, well, this strange little statue that was apparently some favorite thing – it was some representation of some funny looking little sacred animal, more like a South American lama or alpaca than any Indian animal that I know about. Anyway, not without some slight misgivings, I gave this little sacred idol to the nice lady. Although it was the weirdest little thing as to its form, when just looking at it, somehow I knew that substantially there was something to it, in its essence there was some spirituality or magic, and that the lady would be lucky to have it.

Later in the dream I realized that I was again back in College, but that I was well advanced… a junior or senior. I was on a walk, going for a visit to that nice lady, who, like myself, had regenerated into a College Student. At first I wondered that I had spent so long without any interest in the fairer sex, but then remembered my actual college days where that had not been the case at all. Now, in comment, I wonder whether it is really typical to mix up Dream Reality with Actual Reality? Probably. Anyway, I arrived to her room, and there was some other company present. While I mingled, my lady left with a friend of hers, another young lady. I saw her as she left and she looked back at me with an inquisitive look. Was she wondering whether I would wait for her return, or was she wondering whether I would follow. Of course I didn’t follow her. I wasn’t invited. Even in dreams one has to behave like a responsible gentleman. Oh, that reminds me. I had been conditioning myself, while awake, to remember in my dreams not to look for lost things, or go after things that are gone… that I should simply move on. Never backtrack in dreams! So it seems that my resolution has come to fruition and I am acting just as planned! When the object of my fancy left the party, I hung around for maybe five entire seconds before leaving to pursue whatever would happen next. If I would see that nice lady again, it would have to be in another dream.

Now, what did such a dream mean? Regarding Hinduism, well, I have noticed that I have been subtly distancing myself from it lately. I have begun to speak of Philosophical Hinduism as opposed to Religious Hinduism which anymore has become synonymous with the Chaste System and racial bigotry, and the apartheid traditions of Untouchability. Yes, outsiders might suppose that all Indians are racially of the same stock, but the truth is that the Brahmin Class is, or used to be White – the Aryans… the same Aryans that Hitler used to boost so much about. Indeed, the Racism is deeply embedded even in the oldest Hindu Religious Epics. For instance, in the Ramayana we learn that the Tribes of Aryan Invaders were confronted upon their inroads into Southern India by a Civilization of what they referred to as “Monkeys”. Walking, talking ‘monkeys’ that were wearing cloths, living in buildings, paying taxes, holding Court, that is, behaving exactly like People, only they were being called ‘monkeys’. Indian art draws them as real monkeys, with fur and tails, but honestly we should simply just admit that this Civilization of “Monkeys” were the actual People of Southern India, and that the appellation of ‘Monkey’ was not a well thought out zoological designation at all but a denigrating value judgment, a racist epithet! That’s Hinduism at its core.

Hinduism as it comes down to us wishes us to believe that the Aryan Barbarians brought Hinduism with them. That would be odd considering that these same Aryans had invaded other areas of the World without bringing anything close to that same culture or religion with them.

Geology tells us that there had been a Civilization in India prior to what the Aryans would later put claim to, as Hinduism. There was what we now refer to as the Indus Valley Civilization, which we know of from the diggings at the ancient City of Harappa. They think this Civilization even had ties to the ancient Sumerian Civilization. Perhaps even Egypt. Anyway, from what they have found at Herappa, it is likely that the Aryan Brahmins did not bring Religion to India, but that they found it there when they arrived.

We need to remember what the great Historian Arnold Toynbee used to say, that Culture rushes into a vacuum – that while Barbarians may be the conquerors, that does not necessarily make them the Leaders of Culture and Influence. Often the Cultural Influence of even a decayed Civilization will win out in the end. In most cases Barbarians are glad to forget their old ragtag ways, and even their old ragtag languages, and take on the customs and languages of their more cultured and knowledgeable slaves.

So I suspect the Aryans took on the Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization. However, the Aryans did retain the bedrock of their Aryan Language, Sanskrit, which is the root language of many of the European Languages. The Aryans apparently considered it a priority to preserve some separation from the Native People of India, the people they considered “Monkeys”. Obviously they discouraged intermarriage. The Chastes that they established could not mix. Their Racism was thoroughly institutionalized early on.

The Brahmins of Hinduism were opportunistic above all and became adapt at absorbing and calling their own any religious innovation that came along which could serve their purposes. Originally not much more than witchcraft spells and incantations (i.e. the Rig Vedas) Hinduism would later incorporate Western Stoicism, probably from Alexander and the Greeks, as well as Buddhism (which also probably owes most of its content to Western Stoicism… an cosmopolitan and educated Buddha probably would have been able to read all of his own teachings as taken from the original Greek).

Later on the Hindus also absorbed a great deal of Moral Ethical Sufism, influences from Persia and Zoroastrianism (another domain that had experienced Aryan Invasion, but had gone in a different Religious direction). Hinduism became a wealthy collection of a great many philosophical and religious points of view and perspectives. Yes, there were a great many internal contradictions, and while people took these concerns seriously, no one school ever arrived at any so solid position of political power that they could enforce Orthodoxy and Unity of Belief. Some would say this was a virtue of Hinduism; however, we have only to recall that the same Hindu disunity allowed for a mostly successful Muslim Invasion of India, and then the predations of the Mongols. Chronic disagreement is only a mixed virtue.

So Hinduism, while it was inclusive of many ideas, was rather committed to none. Now, with the rise of Nationalistic and Conservative Right Wing Hinduism, much of the Philosophy has been forgotten. Where India had been very welcoming to the West in the sixties and seventies of the last Century, now more and more Hinduism is closing its ranks and making the Westerner feel unwelcome, even untouchable.

Apparently the influence is even being felt within the Collective Consciousness, where Western Dreamers such as myself are getting the message that the Hindu Mind is turning itself away from affiliation with the greater part of the Human Race. Where Love would be inclusive and welcoming, Hinduism would rather exclude and go into its own Brave New World alone. How often is Pride a euphemism for Hate?

While I can regret such a huge rupture within the branches of the Human Family, and while I am saddened that I am being turned away by a people I was willing to a large extent to adopt as my own, I must admit to myself that I have no practical choice then but to heed the dream and distance myself from Hinduism… even ‘Philosophical’ Hinduism. As I said earlier about being a Gentleman – one cannot go where one is not invited.

Now, about the women of my dream…What on earth do women signify in a Dream? In my younger days an answer would be more easily arrived at, but these days there is really no sex in my dreams. Women are only a social connection, and so I suppose they represent some kind of affinity, or maybe even an Identity – a mirror image of myself – myself only inverted.

In the case of my recent dream mentioned above, I gave the lady something that I valued highly but which, really, I realized I had no further use for. Now, in retrospect, I can suspect that by giving the Thing to this lady with whom I so much wished to be close, that I was in effect using her in order to retain some connection with the Thing. To truly give the Thing away, I would have had to walk away from the Lady to whom I gave it. That seems to be what happened. She went away with another lady, that is, another influence. The lady will never return as she was, but maybe she will return in some expanded way, richer from these other influences.

Now, I can remember that this friend of hers seemed decided upon getting her away from me. When my lady friend had looked back, there was a hand on her arm pulling her along, guiding her away. Her friend also looked back at me, with her cold hard eyes warning me away.

Perhaps there is an aspect of some character development within myself that needs to grow in isolation. It will need to come back to me mature and fully formed. My character as it now stands would overpower any new budding tendencies. If a new aspect of character is to seriously make a difference, then it will have to arrive fully formed and able to stand up to the Old Me.

Oh! The Little Animal Thing is a kind of Seed, a nucleus for some Character Development. From the moment the Lady received the Little Animal Thing she was destined to grow and transform. I had already been transformed by the Thing, when it had been mine, but it would effect this lady differently from how it had effected me. She really did need to get away from me, just so she would know that the effective Influences were coming out of Herself and the Thing, and not coming from me. Even if my Influence was the Very Same, she needed to know that she could trust in the same Influence coming from Within herself.

But her growth would be different, simply owing to different accidents, different conditions, a different crystal matrix forming a crystal substantially the same but of a different shape. My personality is perhaps ineradicably colored by all of my crowded and complex history in the real world, but this lady in my dream is gone off to develop – hopefully in the Higher and Purer Planes of the Dream World.