New Delhi: One of my fellow faculty members has a Ganesha deity on his table, which he had collected from India during a trip several years ago. Ganesha sits there with a deep sense of tranquility close to a computer in all his majesty and mystery displayed in an American office room. Another of my colleagues, who is an expert in world mythology, had her lovely daughter named Kali, the fearful and ferocious Hindu Goddess. In both cases, they ended up telling me that they simply like it and gracefully skipped the religious and philosophical jargons one could attach with these symbols and names. But, that made me wonder why Hindu Gods and Goddesses are getting much attention in western culture though many of them are still unaware of it. Is it simply the curiosity that drives such affinity?
We all know that planets are named after Greek gods. It's explicable given the Greek connection to early astronomy and the European inheritance of the ancient knowledge gained by Greeks. But, often the names simply deceive. For example, the Venus is named after the goddess of beauty though now we know that the so-called beautiful planet's atmosphere is full carbon dioxide with floating mist of sulfuric acid that can corrode any born flesh. What a strange beauty!!! Of course, beauty can be deceiving and dangerous. Obviously, ancient notions about planets and stars were skewed though they laid the foundation of modern Astronomy.
Sanskrit and the Indian philosophy always had a broad appeal to philosophers and scientists. From Niles Bohr to Robert Oppenheimer, many of them had a deep interest in Vedas and Upanishads. It has been widely written about Oppenheimer's remark from Bhagavad Gita, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds", which came to his mind after he observed the first experimental detonation of atomic bomb in New Mexico desert.
Furthermore, the Hindu Gods easily blend into human psyche. Many of them engaged in activities that we are used to. They, like us, loved, hated, killed and procreated. They enlightened their followers with words and deeds, explained material success and failure to the devotees making it easier for them to overcome the delusion of both.
Another reason is the association Hindu Gods with deeper philosophical nuance and its linkage it to science. Theoretical physicist Fritjof Capra's "The Tao of Physics" was an international best seller in which he explores and relates the depiction of Nataraja posture with the continuous creation and destruction of particles and their different manifestations in the universe.
The strongest symbolic acknowledgment of this work is reflected in the Nataraja statue outside CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which has built the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the France-Switzerland border. The Indian government gifted a 6 feet Nataraja statue to CERN in 2004. It portrays Shiva's dance of creation and destruction, much like the dance of fundamental particles that generates and destructs matter and energy in the universe in various forms.
A plaque next to the Shiva statue captures the contemporary connotation of the metaphor of Shiva's cosmic dance from Fritjof Capra's book "Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter and for the modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics."
It is a plain irony, partly driven by capitalist market forces, that the customer service representatives, working for US companies from their outsourced locations fake their name to better suit the English audiences, while many in the west finding traditional Hindu names more and more attractive. But there is no reason to be disappointed even as Gods are subjected to the laws of nature. In this modern age, they might even consider a fitting name for their avatars that guarantees existence.
Again, I learned that my colleague who is expecting soon will have her daughter named Maya, the ultimate illusion. And, if anyone seeks my opinion for a boy's name, my choice is clear- Vishnu, another name that is vanishing form Indian demographic landscape as virtual Bobs and Joes flourish and survive along with Pepsi and McBurger. We cannot foresee how future generations will perceive the world. They might not be interested in any illusion, as in years from now they may have transformed into beings without any name and desire to know anything. Then the great Maya will dissolve in Brahman.
We all know that planets are named after Greek gods. It's explicable given the Greek connection to early astronomy and the European inheritance of the ancient knowledge gained by Greeks. But, often the names simply deceive. For example, the Venus is named after the goddess of beauty though now we know that the so-called beautiful planet's atmosphere is full carbon dioxide with floating mist of sulfuric acid that can corrode any born flesh. What a strange beauty!!! Of course, beauty can be deceiving and dangerous. Obviously, ancient notions about planets and stars were skewed though they laid the foundation of modern Astronomy.
Sanskrit and the Indian philosophy always had a broad appeal to philosophers and scientists. From Niles Bohr to Robert Oppenheimer, many of them had a deep interest in Vedas and Upanishads. It has been widely written about Oppenheimer's remark from Bhagavad Gita, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds", which came to his mind after he observed the first experimental detonation of atomic bomb in New Mexico desert.
Furthermore, the Hindu Gods easily blend into human psyche. Many of them engaged in activities that we are used to. They, like us, loved, hated, killed and procreated. They enlightened their followers with words and deeds, explained material success and failure to the devotees making it easier for them to overcome the delusion of both.
Another reason is the association Hindu Gods with deeper philosophical nuance and its linkage it to science. Theoretical physicist Fritjof Capra's "The Tao of Physics" was an international best seller in which he explores and relates the depiction of Nataraja posture with the continuous creation and destruction of particles and their different manifestations in the universe.
The strongest symbolic acknowledgment of this work is reflected in the Nataraja statue outside CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which has built the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the France-Switzerland border. The Indian government gifted a 6 feet Nataraja statue to CERN in 2004. It portrays Shiva's dance of creation and destruction, much like the dance of fundamental particles that generates and destructs matter and energy in the universe in various forms.
A plaque next to the Shiva statue captures the contemporary connotation of the metaphor of Shiva's cosmic dance from Fritjof Capra's book "Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter and for the modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics."
It is a plain irony, partly driven by capitalist market forces, that the customer service representatives, working for US companies from their outsourced locations fake their name to better suit the English audiences, while many in the west finding traditional Hindu names more and more attractive. But there is no reason to be disappointed even as Gods are subjected to the laws of nature. In this modern age, they might even consider a fitting name for their avatars that guarantees existence.
Again, I learned that my colleague who is expecting soon will have her daughter named Maya, the ultimate illusion. And, if anyone seeks my opinion for a boy's name, my choice is clear- Vishnu, another name that is vanishing form Indian demographic landscape as virtual Bobs and Joes flourish and survive along with Pepsi and McBurger. We cannot foresee how future generations will perceive the world. They might not be interested in any illusion, as in years from now they may have transformed into beings without any name and desire to know anything. Then the great Maya will dissolve in Brahman.
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