Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 28 Article 17

2015

Book Review: Homegrown : From in America to American Hinduism

Thomas A. Forsthefel Mercyhurst University

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Recommended Citation Forsthefel, Thomas A. (2015) "Book Review: Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 28, Article 17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1616

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Forsthefel: Book Review: Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to Amer

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Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism. Edited by Ann Gleig and Lola Williamson. Albany: SUNY Press, 2013, xi + 234 pages.

THIS rich collection of essays extends and The apt metaphor, here, is less that of develops what Cynthia Ann Humes and I water and waves, but the effective did in our volume published now ten years transplantation, fertilization, and ago, Gurus in America (State University of grounding that occurs in soil. The gurus New York). Our book considered the examined here are thus ‘homegrown’; all, cultural and philosophical negotiations except for one, were born in America. They that obtained in the migration of Hindu very much represent an eclectic mix ritual and conceptual systems in and including ethnic whites, females as well as through the migration of Indian gurus—or males, former Jews, Christians, and hippies. their ideas (e.g., ) or cult One Indian, Amrit Desai, is featured, largely (e.g., Sai Baba)—to America. We spoke of because of the ‘homegrown’ nature of the this as a second wave—roughly beginning center he founded, Kripalu, which has been in the 1960s—of the Hindu reinvented as an eclectic center for phenomenon in America, the first begun spiritual development following Desai’s sex with ’s virtuoso scandal and subsequent resignation. performance at the World Parliament of Breaking new and fascinating ground, Religions in in 1893. In effect, our some of the issues and concerns of this use of gurus was a lens by which we book are nevertheless shared with our examined religious and cultural change, earlier collection. For example, what and this we did by examining the various precisely happens—sociologically and adaptions and interfaces that occurred in philosophically—when a non-Indian the mission of Indian gurus and their (re-) American guru adopts and adapts—or constructions of Hinduism. Jeffrey Kripal’s appropriates—Hindu concepts and essay in that book—on the American born practices? What interpretive changes are guru Adi Da (Franklin Jones)—effectively made to a host of traditional Hindu anticipated Gleig’s and William’s book. philosophies—and for which reasons were Their volume addresses not a third they made? How do American wave of Indian gurus in America, but a new sensibilities—such as egalitarianism and a generation of Hindu gurus in America, that resistance to hierarchy—impact an is, American (and white) spiritual seekers ‘American’ Hinduism? How do these and adepts, some of whom are spiritual sensibilities challenge or contest traditional descendants of the second wave of gurus. patterns of leadership? And how do

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124 Book Reviews

traditional react or respond to Hansen), an American white male who over innovations in leadership or substance? many and complicated years of (Sometimes not well, at least in the case of development—often carefully represented Sivaya Subramuniyaswami). in creative biographies, as Richard Mann The book is fascinating with its detailed details—became recognized by many accounts of the personal histories of the Hindus as an authentic and orthodox voice featured gurus (a curious number of whom within Hinduism. But this was achieved had—or reportedly had—‘mystical’ only with considerable difficulty, including experiences as very young children) and meeting sustained challenges to his the manner by which they absorb, adopt, authority by Tamil Hindus, first, on the and adapt Hindu notions and lineages. basis of linguistic limitations (S.S. could not Intriguingly, as these American Hindu read Tamil) and second, owing to ‘children’, as it were, ‘grew up’, not ‘unacceptable’ theological innovation (S.S. infrequently they rebelled against their emphasized a monistic theism in Saiva ‘parents’, i.e., their former guru masters, Siddhanta, which traditionally favors a sometimes setting a course of theistic and devotional dualism). estrangement which only further Weathering those challenges, maximized or stretched their particular— Subramuniyaswami eventually won an and sometimes peculiar—interpretations of elevated stature and prestige as a Hindu Hinduism, sometimes to the ‘world teacher’, indeed, even being understandable consternation of endorsed by the VHP as “the Hindu Voice traditional Indian Hindus. So, for example, of the Century.” Thus, what began, in his Swami Rudrananda (Albert Rudolf) severed youth, as a flirtation with Theosophy and ties with Muktananda and Kripalu with American metaphysical traditions Desai; ‘Master Charles’ (formerly Swami blossomed into a fully developed socially Vivekananda) also becomes distanced from conservative and orthodox expression of Muktananda in significant ways, as does Hinduism. Swami Kirtanananda (Keith Ham) from What is particularly fascinating about Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKON. the book—and, I hope, in our earlier Indeed—and not un-coincidentally—some study—is the implied or explicit of the most striking innovations in their engagement of what counts as ‘Hinduism’. expressions of Hinduism comes from these Indeed, what emerges in such studies American gurus who part ways with their finally is the rejection of monolithic former masters. versions of Hinduism, just as there is no One of the most intriguing accounts is ‘one size fits all’ version of , Islam that of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Richard or Christianity. This may be dismaying to

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol28/iss1/17 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1616 2 Forsthefel: Book Review: Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to Amer

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those who prefer tight boundaries and a phenomenon as Hinduism, after washing measure of control, whether doctrinal or across the shores of America with earlier ideological. But, as the adage goes, the cat gurus, took root and grew in specific and is out of the bag. The empirical record innovative ways under the charisma and testifies to the fact that religions typically creativity of America’s own homegrown change—just as everything else changes— gurus. under specific conditions, including, here, historical and social conditions. The beauty Thomas A. Forsthoefel of Gleig’s and Williamson’s book is its Mercyhurst University careful and detailed accounting of that

The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Gavin Flood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, xviii + 310 pages.

A sense of religious inwardness persists, even The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition after such philosophical game-changers as the (2004) explored how asceticism functions to deconstruction of the privileged subject and intensify subjectivity while decreasing the demise of cosmology. What can we make of individuality; that is, the practitioner becomes this persistent, maybe even perennial, embedded more deeply in the cosmos and in inwardness? In his careful study of the religious history. The intensification of medieval religions of Europe and South Asia, subjectivity in the ascetic self, while being an Gavin Flood uncovers collective, cosmological erosion of individuality, is not thereby a senses of inwardness and inquires about their depersonalization. He refines these ideas implications for religious studies today. further in The Truth Within when he trenchantly In this ambitious book, Flood’s reach is names the practices and traditions of thrillingly wide: three world religions— inwardness a “transcendence of restriction” Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, (193). Inwardness as a shared subjectivity thus throughout the Middle Ages, across Europe and differs from individualism “where South Asia. After surveying the concept of the individualism is a kind of social value that truth within in Hinduism, Buddhism, and emphasizes the particular carrier of the ‘I’ as Christianity in Part I, Part II draws on part I to self-assertion against the social group” (194). develop a theory of religious inwardness while He claims that human subjectivity is cultivated addressing critiques that emerge. in all three religions through their respective The book examines the metaphor of spiritual practices, but he distinguishes this interiority and explores the relation of interior subjectivity from “the kind of private, romantic truth to ideas of the self. Flood’s previous book, inwardness we are familiar with in late

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