ACHARYA MAHASABHA RESOLUTION- Book should be widely read by public
Key Resolution- Dharmic Leadership
The Acharya Mahasabha, the premier Umbrella organization has, over the past decade, brought under one roof the leading acharyas, Swamis, and other eminent holy figures of the various & diverse sects of Sanatana Dharma / Hinduism. It has been instrumental in uniting the voices of all concerned citizens to articulate issues of major concern to Hindus worldwide.
It has been sensitive to the effects ot Academic misinterpretation of Hindu ideas & icons for a while.
From the proceeds of this important Conference-
Resolutions passed in the third Conference of the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, held in Sri Adichunchanagiri( near Bangalore) on February 9-11, 2008
This third Conference of the Acharya Sabha was held in the ancient Sri Adi Chunchanagiri Matha during February 9 to 11, 2008. The Acharya members present heard the Secretary’s report and the Convener’s observations. With that background, the Acharya Sabha deliberated on a variety of topics of concern and interest to Hindus world-wide and in India in particular. The substance of the deliberations and conclusions appears in the brief Statement below. It is followed by the Resolutions passed on individual topics in the Agenda considered by the Acharya Sabha.
Below is the Excerpt pertaining to the Book “Invading The Sacred” –
(fourth in list)
Distortion and Denigration of Hinduism by academicians.
Noting that
· for several years now some Western academics, particularly in some American Universities have been publishing articles, PhD theses and books, purporting to interpret and analyze Hinduism, Hindu deities and worship practices;
· some of these works are extremely ill-informed or purposely distorted; they do not meet the rigorous standards of scholarship nor do they undergo competent peer-review; they denigrate things sacred to Hindus;
· these works do not remain within scholarly circles but find their way as recommended readings in schools and colleges in the US; besides giving a completely wrong picture of what is Hinduism and what their deities stand for, they impact the young minds of Hindu children and young adults in a deeply injurious manner—destroying their self esteem and pride in their own tradition and cultural roots;
· TV media in India is dominated by non-Hindu interests, pseudo-secularists and Abrahamic religious leadership/institutions; the result is that Hindu youth does not get a correct picture of what Hinduism is and what is its stand on many contemporary issues amidst virulent propaganda against Hindu Dharma; and
· under the deeply flawed notion of what secularism means, school and college curricula avoid any serious Religious studies in the country in an academic setting; this affects Hindu thought particularly.
It is hereby resolved that
· the book, Invading the Sacred, which exposes in a scholarly setting these developments should be widely distributed to encourage large-scale readership; an adapted Summary version in different languages should be put out in the country and liberally distributed;
· till such time a full blown Acharya Sabha TV Channel becomes a reality, Acharyas may buy time-slots in the existing regional and national TV Channels ( Sanskar; Astha; Vishwa Dharisanam, and several such regional language channels) for expertly designed programs; they should comprise not only pravachans on Hindu scriptural and Puranic wisdom but also lectures by Hindu scholars in various professions, debates on contemporary Hindu concerns and issues with a view to countering false propaganda by vested interests and uninformed criticism of Hindu Dharma, and to convey authentic information to youth about Hinduism’s stand on several contemporary social issues. Some important examples are the problem of global warming and how families could contribute to mitigating the adverse effects, child and women welfare, labor welfare, moderating competition in business with compassion and Seva for the underprivileged;
· efforts must be mounted to install departments and curricula of Religious Studies in educational institutions in different States; and well-educated and academically inclined brahmacharis and brahmacharinis should be identified by individual Acharyas and encouraged with financial support to undertake higher studies and PhD programs in civilization/culture/ religion-related subjects; such studies should also be encouraged to develop and clarify Hindu position on a variety of contemporary issues such as human rights, child labour, women welfare, labour welfare, good governance, legal and penal controversies, poverty eradication, sociology, Hindu history, anthropology, medicine, archaeology, architecture etc; and
· colonial constructs and colonized mind- set must be exposed in an academic setting, and in media-debates, journals and in scholarly publications, for which financial and other forms of support should be extended by Acharyas and their well-to-do devotees.
Please see the full document at URL below for the full text of this wide ranging resolution, touching on various topics concerning Sanatana Dharma: