Hindus and Hinduism

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HINDUS AND HINDUISM

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest living religions—the earliest extant Hindu text, the Rig Veda Samhita, was composed around 1500 bce, and Varanasi, a Hindu center, is the world's oldest continuously inhabited city. Hindus constitute about a sixth of the world's population today. Most Hindus live in India, but there are now close to a million Hindus, both Indians and non-Indians, in the United States.

Americans have long been interested in Hinduism. Nineteenth-century transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau appreciated texts such as the Bhagvadgita after they were translated into English in the late eighteenth century. In 1893, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), disciple of Sri Ramakrishna (1836–1886), was widely acclaimed when he spoke at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. This interest was later heightened by U.S. sympathy with the Gandhiled movement for Indian independence, which foregrounded Hindu emphasis on nonviolence. In U.S. literature, interest in Hinduism often intersects with interest in same-sex bonding, among writers from Walt Whitman to Allen Ginsberg.

Mainstream Hindus tend to regard all beings, including humans, animals, and gods and goddesses, as manifestations of one universal Atman (Self/Spirit). Realizing the identity of individual selves with the universal Self leads to peace and liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Sensual desire and worldly attachments are not evil but do obstruct this realization. In mainstream Hindu philosophy, heterosexual desire is not viewed as superior to homosexual desire, since both result in egotistic attachments. Differences in gender, sexuality, caste, and class are thought to be the result of attachments in previous lives, not essential attributes of the self. Hindu texts posit desire as one of the four aims of life, which cannot be avoided but must be experienced and transcended. The fourth-century Kamasutra catalogs all types of desire, including same-sex desire, and gives a nonjudgmental account of male–male sexual relations.

In Hindu societies, same-sex relationships tend to coexist with heterosexual marriage and parenthood and are usually expressed in the form of visible romantic friendships or less visible liaisons. Although homosexual and transgender relationships have been represented in Hindu texts from several centuries before the Christian era up to the present, there is no record of anyone in India being executed for homosexuality. When Europeans arrived in India, they were shocked by the relatively unashamed prevalence of same-sex relations, and when the British established their Indian empire they made sodomy a criminal offense. Although many Indians (in India and elsewhere) internalized this new homophobia, it continued to be countered by older Hindu perspectives. Consequently, modern Hindus tend to experience social shame rather than religious guilt about their homosexuality.

Since the nineteenth century many European and U.S. homosexuals have travelled East in search of less homophobic cultures. Several also turned to Eastern religions and teachers. Novelist Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) joined the Ramakrishna Mission, and with his guru, Swami Prabhavananda (1893–1976), translated into English several Hindu texts, including the Bhagvadgita .In My Guru and His Disciple, Isherwood recounts how Prabhavananda advised him to see his male lover as the young Lord Krishna (p. 25). When reading about the persecution of Oscar Wilde, Prabhavananda remarked, "Poor man. All lust is the same" (p. 254).

Along the same lines, philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986), who traveled throughout the world discussing spiritual matters with seekers and set up a center in Ojai, California, said that homosexuality, which, like heterosexuality, has been a fact for thousands of years, is made into a problem only because of human beings' overemphasis on sex. Rather than heightening conflict by trying to suppress one's desire for a beautiful man, woman, or other object, he advised enjoying beauty without trying to possess or control it.

In the twentieth century, the spread of yoga and vegetarianism as health practices have helped popularize Hindu ideas and practices, also drawing more LGBT Americans to Hindu teachers. For example, many U.S. LGBT people are among the disciples of female guru Gurumayi Chidvilasananda (born 1955), successor to Swami Muktananda (1908–1982) as head of the Siddha Yoga tradition, which has centers all over the world, including several locations in the United States. While most report a supportive environment, a few who have left the organization say the atmosphere was homophobic.

Indian Hindus living in the United States constitute a highly educated, successful group that maintains strong ties with India. Although influenced by modern forms of homophobia, they are also exposed to LGBT movements and literature developed in the West. There are now many Indian LGBT groups in the United States and India, most of whose members are Hindu in origin. There are prominent activists of Hindu origin, such as Urvashi Vaid, in U.S. LGBT movements.

Some modern right-wing Hindu groups, active both in India and the United States, express virulent opposition to homosexuality, inaccurately claiming that it was unknown to ancient Hindus and was introduced by West Asian Muslims or by Europeans. Influenced by this myth, many Hindus in the U.S. objected to Deepa Mehta's depiction of lesbianism in a Hindu family in her 1998 film Fire .

Trikone, the LGB South Asian magazine that was published in San Francisco since 1986, has included many essays on Hinduism and homosexuality. Trikone's 1996 special issue on this theme carried an interview (pp. 6–7) with Jim Gilman, a gay U.S. follower of Swami Chinmayananda (1916–1993). This interview reveals the range of attitudes to homosexuality among Hindus today. Chinmayananda was always accepting of his LGB followers, but some heterosexual followers expressed discomfort and asked him his opinion of homosexuality. His response was: "There are many branches on the tree of life. Full stop. Next question." After Chinmayananda's death, his successor removed Gilman, who had taken vows of celibacy, from his teaching position at Chinmaya Mission. The reason cited was Gilman's past as a sexually active gay man. Gilman continues to teach Vedanta philosophy independently to small groups.

Academic South Asian studies in the United States tends to ignore the presence of same-sex relationships in Hindu cultures, but a few U.S. scholars and publishers have contributed to making this presence visible. Since the late twentieth century, LGBT Indians in the United States have begun to produce literature, films, critical commentary, and memoirs that shed light on Hindu approaches to LGBT issues and that circulate both in India and the United States. Several Hindu same-sex weddings, some conducted by Hindu priests, have also taken place in the United States (and many more in India), some between Indians and some between Indians and non-Indians.