INTRODUCTION: INDIAN HERITAGE GROUPS

India is the home of the world's oldest major religious heritage, Hinduism. In its oldest forms, Hinduism is prehistoric in origin, but has undergone numerous developments, attempted reforms, and changes due to varying local pressures. The history of Hinduism begins with the Indo European Invasion of India in waves dating to 5000 B.C. During this period the Rig Veda, the oldest of India's sacred books, was written. The faith was a vigorous, worldly religion with a very positive view of the afterlife.

The second stage of Hindu history centers on the production of the Upanishads, the major collection of Hindu religious writings, and the rise of the ruling Brahman class. During this period, beginning about 1000 B.C., a change from the positive attitudes of the Vedic period to a generally pessimistic view of life occurred, and the ideas of karma and reincarnation came to the fore. Reincarnation, the concept that a person may go through a succession of earthly lives, in its more extreme forms, teaches that a soul may return as an animal or even a plant. The rationale for reincarnation is karma, the principle of retribution, a law of justice which brings upon individuals the inevitable consequences of their actions.

Escape from karma and the wheel of reincarnation is by absorption into Brahma, the world soul. This absorption is most frequently accomplished by practicing yoga, a discipline designed to lead first to self integration and then integration with Brahma.

There are four main groups of yoga disciplines -- bhakti, jnana, karma, and raja. (What is commonly taught in the United States as yoga, hatha exercises, is not technically yoga but exercises for body integration prior to practicing yoga.) Bhakti yoga is the way to God through devotional service. Jnana is the discipline of ideas and knowledge. Karma is work, and raja or royal yoga approaches Brahma through meditative exercises. The types of yoga are to accommodate the different types of individuals emotional, scholarly, active, and mystical. Besides the four main types, there are numerous techniques such as japa yoga which involves the repetition of one or more words (termed "mantrum") over and over again. Other yogas go under the names prana, kriya, siddha, and integral

During the Brahmic period, the several major schools of Hinduism, each related to different aspects of Brahma (deities), emerged. The Vaishnavas worship Krishna as the primary aspect of Brahma. As a whole they follow Patanjali, the ancient teacher of yoga. A third group follow Shakti, Siva's female consort, often called "kundalini."

The Brahmic era was disrupted by the conquest of India by Great Britain. An initial defensive reaction to British rule and Christian missions was followed by the creative Hindu Renaissance, the third stage of Hindu development. Led by a number of outstanding leaders such as Ram Mohan Roy and Sri Ramakrishna, reformed Hindu movements emerged. Almost all American Hindu groups represent either older groups which have been restructured by the Renaissance or new groups produced by it.

The first Hindu teacher in the United States, P. C. Mozoomdar, arrived in 1882, but Hinduism's real history in America dates to 1893 and the appearance of several spokespersons at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Swami Vivekananda, a disciple of Ramakrishna who spoke at the Parliament, became a nationally known figure because of his oratorical ability and vibrant personality. After the Parliament he established the Vedanta Society, America's first Hindu group. Over the next decades, several additional Hindu teachers came to the United States, most notably Swami Yogananda, who founded the Self Realization Society. Only after World War II, however, did Hinduism begin to make a major impact. The growth of modern Hinduism was undergirded by the increased study of comparative religion in colleges and universities, the cross-fertilization occasioned by American visitors to India, and (after 1965) the increasing number of gurus (i.e., teachers) who migrated and settled in America. It greatest period of growth in the United States has come as a direct result of the rescission of the Oriental Exclusion Act with a new immigration quota bill in 1965.

The five groups included in this section are among some 75 Indian Heritage bodies in the United States. They are among the group which have been most successful in their recruitment and conversion of non Asian Americans to Hinduism. It is to be expected, as a result of the significant increased quotas on immigration from Asia passed by Congress in November 1990, that Hinduism will continue to increase significantly through the 1990s.