Sense of Humor

This weekend I posted a picture on my Facebook fan page that made a joke about the movie Avatar and Krishna. It depicts a cartoon of Krishna using a common Internet meme about "hipsters." I found it very clever and fun, but I was surprised to see an immediate backlash.

Amit Rasam dont play like this with hindu god. This not a cartoon,


I could see his point. I had not thought about people who see this as disrespectful to the Gods. It made me think two things:

1) It seems to me that the Gods are full of playfulness and teasing. Particularly Krishna. The stories of him are full of fun and games, teasing and jokes. He always has a twinkle in his eye.

So it's difficult for me to think that Krishna would be offended by this. It is not demeaning him, but in fact pointing out that the idea of a blue avatar is older than the Avatar movie. There's nothing offensive about that.

It is said that as one gets closer to God, He becomes more of a friend than a scary authority figure that is going to punish you. I feel that my relationship with Krishna is full of fun and teasing that is nothing but affectionate. I adore Krishna, and fully believe that He adores me.

2) Being chastised for my behavior towards the Gods makes me feel as though this person believes he is the authority on Hinduism and that I am not as Hindu as he is. Perhaps I'm imagining that, but it is what it comes across as.

I don't know this man, I have no relation to him, but he feels he should tell me what I should or shouldn't do with the Gods.

But the thing is, they are my Gods too. 

And basically what I said to him was that this is the relationship that I have with the Gods, and if he finds it offensive, he doesn't have to visit my fan page. It's as simple as that.

I'm fascinated to see that some people take religion with such an intense seriousness and I can't help but think it's going to cause them to develop an ulcer. Having a sense of humor around religion seems to me to be much more in line with the divine creation as a play and entertainment for God.

A Good Resource

I've been working on putting together some introduction articles with information on setting up your altar at home and doing pujas, etc.

While working on it, I came across this forum. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I noticed that they had a message board for people who are new to Santana Dharma and I thought that would be a great place for people who are looking for help with being Hindu!

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=60

Giggle

Your Advice for a New Hindu

kylel515Apr 9, 2012 08:43 PM

I have a question. I am 15 year old white male and I'm interested in becoming Hindu. My parents are both Christian, and I'm nervous to tell them because I am worried how they'll respond. Any advice?

Here is a comment that I received yesterday.

The advice I gave was to take things slowly, to learn and begin to practice quietly on his own and to wait to tell his parents until he has moved out and is on his own.

What do you think? What advice would you give Kyle?

Struggling with Envy

Is there any way to make that negative quality into a good one? :)

Recently my boyfriend and I were talking about fatal flaws, as in which of the Christian seven deadly sins is in the forefront for each of us. It did not take but thirty seconds for me to realize that mine is envy.

I struggle with it every day.

I love other people and want other people to be happy, but the envy still comes. I wish I could figure out how to stop it. Or at least, at this point, reframe it when I notice the thoughts in my mind.

So many times a day envy creeps in. Today, for example...

1) Pick up a new writer's magazine and there's an article about the young man who wrote the Eragon dragon series of books. First one was self-published when he was 17 and ten years later he's never had to have a job doing anything but writing those books. They're wildly popular. Stab of envy. I want that.


2) Facebook always kills me. That's an every day problem but I can't stop looking! People's pictures of weddings and babies and announcements of engagements. Stab of envy. I have no patience to wait for my life to catch up with theirs (and hey, it's not all just my impatience: I am the last single one of my girl friends, so I'm not exactly imagining things).

3) Seeing praise for another writer on a message board where I'm usually the only one. Heaping praise on new girl (who is a good writer) and anxiously asking her for more stories. I want to be supportive of the newbie. I like her a lot, but... Stab of envy. What about my stories? Doesn't anyone want more of mine?


4) On message board for authors and reading threads about people who have successfully quit their jobs from money earned on short stories. I'm writing the same style of short stories. I've made about $1.50 on them. One person mentioned having hundreds of downloads within days of first starting to put stories on Kindle so I asked her for advice about marketing these types of stories. Followed her advice to the letter. Got no sales. Stab of envy. Even though my job is nice, it would really help to not feel tied to it.


I sound so freaking pathetic. I absolutely hate to admit to these petty and mean-spirited feelings. But they happen at that gut level before I can logic them away.

What script do you think I could use to replace these thoughts when I notice them? Make me feel like I'm not alone, what's your deadly sin/fatal flaw?

[Interesting to me to notice as I write these out that so many of them are connected to my professional life. That, at least, is a clue to me of where my energy and attention might be needed and the fact that I am spending most of my time and energy on developing my writing career says to me that I'm doing well following my heart]

ETA: Oh, and also, for the record, I've been doing "count your blessings"/gratitude exercises for the last twenty days or so and really enjoying that, but it hasn't ended my envy. Not yet, anyway.

Astrology

Speaking of the Atman providing, my new boyfriend is an astrologer.

I thought that was pretty funny, since that's the one side of Hinduism that I am not at all familiar with. Astrology was not at all a part of my upbringing and I know almost nothing about it.

A few months ago I started thinking about it more because I met a friend who was very into it and she described being skeptical at first, but then wanting to look at the evidence and not make assumptions about something she didn't know about. That was twenty years ago and now she is very dedicated to it.

Shortly after that I began dating the man I'm seeing now and I started hearing a whole lot more about astrology.

It's an interesting opportunity for me to learn. I'm going to be examining the ways in which his astrology compares to Hindu astrology.

There's been some interesting moments that have made me want to learn more. For example, over winter I briefly dated a young man who reminded me extremely strongly of an ex. I couldn't pinpoint why, but there was something about his approach to life that made me feel the exact same "vibe" about him as the ex. Later I suddenly realized that those men were born only days apart. Both had the same astrological sign. I thought that was fascinating!

The Atman Provides

My mom always says that. "The Atman provides." What she means is that the universe is good at filling needs and often when you have a lack, something that leads towards what you need will appear.

Not always, so I wonder what it is that makes the difference. Perhaps it is being open and receptive to receive?

A good example is what happened with my bed.

For the last three years I've had a small twin bed from Ikea and it has served me well. I'm very fond of it. But one of them men I was seeing a few months ago complained that my bed was far too small and suggested that I ought to have a "grownup" bed.

I decided he was right. I did need a grownup bed. I put that in my mind as something that I should look into at some point, but I didn't take any active steps towards it. I didn't really want to pay for a new bed!

The next month a friend at work announced that she was moving to NYC and leaving most of her furniture behind to go to Goodwill. I asked what she was doing with her bed. It was not spoken for.

She gave me the bed completely free. It is a full size bed and mattress and its white iron work fits the decor of my bedroom completely perfectly.

The universe provided.

I find this sort of thing happens a lot! Have you ever observed this phenomenon?

New Blog

A comment was just left by a writer at a blog called Mom with a Dot. Sounds like great reading material for this audience, right? :)

http://momwithadot.blogspot.com/

I look forward to reading the archives and maybe getting some more ideas about how I can plan to raise my future children with a healthy American style Hinduism.