Created from the earth, Ganapati/Ganesha (every devout Hindus Divine friend) stands at the entrance challenging even Siva! Ganesha is entrance into Hinduism and is the inspiration for all Hindus to guard this precious Dharma. Whether we are born Hindus converts or adoptives to Hindu Dharma, we owe it to our self and each other to continue to learn, to admit mistakes and make any necessary corrections. Pretense to knowledge and status, denial, unethical behavior and an unwillingness to admit mistakes is naturally unproductive.

Innumerable Hindus unceasingly and unpretentiously daily live Hindu Dharma. Many Hindu organizations continue to do great work. True to human nature, many Hindus also live a rather shallow religious life. Unfortunately, many Hindu organizations and their leaders enter into various forms of denial, deception and outright fraud. As a Hindu family, we need to help each other and especially when we go astray. In this spirit, the following observations are offered.

Historically, Hindus (also implying Hindu culture) have been attacked for many reasons. Focusing on the religious reasons, attacks by the monotheists are well-documented. It is Hindus who should be helping the monotheists with their immature religious/spiritual doctrines. Presently, Hindus are also being attacked by secularists and "new-age universalists." Sadly, many of these attacks are created and maintained by those who are or who have come from (yet often resist any overt label) Hinduism. The misinformed Hindu is one thing, however, the anti-Hindu, Hindu is much more of a problem. Though raised in Hindu Dharma, the anti-Hindu, Hindu is one who will not admit to being a Hindu but still uses all of the Sanskrit/Hindu words, teachings and practices. These, essentially, cult leaders have an "obvious" agenda cloaked in helping others or simply lacking in any meaningful vision. Ironically even many so-called "swamis" and "yogis," openly or through complacency, perpetuate the misrepresentation of Hindu Dharma.

Many Sanskrit words and the subsequent Hindu teachings and practices are being taken out of context. One must remember that, almost uniquely, Sanskrit is a religious language; i.e., the noble language of the Hindus. Properly, every Sanskrit word is inseparable from Hindu Dharma.

One has only to look at the misuse, by the general public, of the Sanskrit words "Guru," "Mantra" and "Yoga," for example. There are "Diet Gurus," "Fitness Gurus" and even "Wall Street Gurus." There are "Mantras" to obtain any kind of secular and political goal. Our Hindu teachings and many practices of Yoga, especially, have been widely distorted. Yoga, to many, erroneously means merely a physical exercise or a (vague) universal spirituality. Hindus should know that Yoga means Yuj Atmana Brahman ca or union of Atmana and Brahman. The various, classic Yogas define the Hindu lifestyle and means to this Self-Realization: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga. The popular but spurious "yoga" is meant to represent Hatha Yoga but falls far short. This so-called "yoga" is not presented within a Hindu context and of course not by qualified Hindu teachers. This "yoga" is simply another blatant example of stealing from and abusing the Hindu and their religion.

The present distortions about Hinduism are due, in large part, to ineffective Hindu teachers and a complacent Hindu "laity." Again, "yoga" has come to mean an exercise business divorced from the Hindu religion and, of course, taught by non-Hindus. Can you imagine Jews, Christians or Muslims allowing for a "Diet Rabbi," a Fitness Pope" or a "Wall Street Imam?" Can you imagine classes (for a fee) in "Baptism (underwater diving)," "Wailing Wall (rock climbing)" and a "10k run/circuit around the Kaba Stone?"

Not only do the secularists pilfer and misrepresent our Hindu Yogas, but now some Christians and Jews are getting in on this grand theft. For example, Cindy Senarighi of Yogadevotion teaches so-called "Christian Yoga." Father Thomas Ryan is a leader of a Christian yoga movement. Susan Bordenkircher is a Methodist "yoga teacher" who has unabashedly renamed Surya Namaskar, "Son Salutation." Stephen Rapp is a Jew who teaches "yoga" relating the Jewish alphabet to the asanas. Rabbi Myriam Klotz founded "The Yoga and Jewish Spirituality Teacher Training Institute." At YogaXoga.com, "yoga teacher" Heidi Valenzuela claims to "de-mystify" yoga and offers a "Christ-centered yoga." Take a look at the list of phony yoga so-called "arts and sciences" at icyas.com lead by a so-called "yogi Akal." Incidentally, the "yogi" charges $150 for a 45 min. session! The list of phony yoga is almost endless, in fact, it is almost a guarantee that most any "yoga" site picked up on the internet is a yoga scam.

Why do they do this? Another phony yoga teacher and Christian, Cathy Chakwick, summed it up. " I feel more comfortable practicing yoga in conjunction with my faith."Where did many learn to de-Hindu "yoga?" It is Hindus who misused the word "yoga," made universalist claims and proclaimed "yoga fits into anyone's religion--the M.O. of the fundamentalist/universalist.

Here are a few more interesting justifications for stealing Hatha Yoga from the Hindus:

1. We don't have a physical component in Christianity or Judaism.

2. Like the changing of old 'bar tunes' into Christian hymns, we are doing 'yoga' a favor by taking the evil Hinduism out of it.

3. (By offering Christian Yoga) It is a way to get new Christian converts.

With the blatant and widespread distortion of Hatha Yoga, it is no coincidence that sexual and monetary scandals have accompanied this spurious "yoga." Many are familiar with the scandals surrounding Bikram, Desai, Swamis Rama and Muktananda and Rodney Yee, to name a few. Of course all the so-called "yogis" and "yoginis" who are not Hindus (Buddhists, Jains or Sikhs) are 100% bogus. "Yoga Booty Ballet" is a recent example of numerous "hybrid yogas" and demonstrates just how low things have gotten. In case one does not know, "booty" is American slang for the human derrière. YBB even puts out an "infomercial" complete with tabla drummers of Indian ethnic origin!

It should be abundantly clear to Hindus that many are not learning and teaching so-called "yoga" out of a respect for Hindus and Hindu Dharma. On the contrary, these unethical individuals and organizations want nothing to do with the word "Hindu." Again, it is the anti-Hindu "Hindu" who is responsible for these distortions. Some of these "Hindus" are merely too complacent and lacking in the vision of the effects of such laziness while others have their cultic agendas. Hindu sectarianists are as stuck in their misguided "universalism" as any Jewish, Christian or Islamic fundamentalist. (As a fundamentalist is different from one who follows the wisdom of fundamentals, so too, is a sectarian different than who follows a sect.)

When a Vaishnava or Saiva sectarianist believes and teaches that EVERYTHING comes from Vishnu or Siva, such individuals and groups should not be surprised when young Hindus marry outside their religion and even become Christians, for example. After all, is not everything a manifestation of "Isvara?" Hindus should follow their sect or Sampradaya and realize the wisdom of its boundaries. To be sure when the naive Hindu starts going to church, the new congregation will fully expect that one will eventually renounce Hindu Dharma and accept the "real universal teachings and savior."

The Rishi's wisdom of Ekam Sat/Sad Vipra Bahudha Vadanti has been sorely misunderstood. [In] unified essence sages many names and forms declare (or speak of). This primal statement of Hindu Dharma says nothing of One God (or One Isvara/Esana/MahaDeva). Sat is essence or being (VERB NOT NOUN). Sad is abiding--[In] Unified abiding... . Sat also represents the Absolute of which we cannot speak--period. Om Tat Sat. Zero to Three, this is the wisdom of the Trimurthi. One is a convience and is already duality or two. Having an Ishta Devata is fine--it is when we attempt to make it THE ONE, that we fall into serious delusion.

What are concerned Hindus to do? Start learning, standing up and speaking out for Hindu Dharma. Stop allowing the misuse of our sacred Sanskrit terms. Recognize specific yogas such as Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, etc.; in other words, stop using the word "yoga" to represent Hatha Yoga. Do not host "yoga teacher training." Help interested non-Hindus to become Hindus. After one becomes a Hindu (if not a born Hindu), then, perhaps, one can become a real teacher of the various aspects of Yoga/Hinduism.

Hindu organizations should not wonder why Hindus are disrespected when many Hindus seem not to care. Hindus should take a lesson from other cultures and religions that have effectively been wiped-out by aggressors. Many Hindus even describe their beliefs in Christian terms. We even have "Hindu organizations" that refer their selves as a Church whose leaders used to be referred to as Reverend Fathers and, at one time, established a Christian Yoga Order. Now as self-appointed Swamis with questionable lineage (not that any lengthy lineage is needed) such groups pretend to speak authoritatively for Hindus. So capitulating are many Hindus that we now have a so-called "Hindu University" that aligns with the spurious "Yoga Alliance." We even have a so-called "Gurukulam" (which is supposed to ethically teach Hindus to be more informed Hindus) that has non-Hindu teachers. Even sexual predators teach within many such organizations. Many of the students of such "Hindu organizations?" do not even realize they are learning Hindu Dharma! So pervasive is misinformation about Hindu Dharma that many falsely believe that Vedanta and Yoga, for example, are completely separate from Hindu Dharma.

An article, The Hindu Trinity Myth, in Hinduism Today was an obvious example of many Hindus confusion peppered with a pervasive Christian influence. In literal fact, there is no Hindu Trinity Myth. However, within many of us (Hindus), there are plenty of honest mistakes, misconceptions, denials and even blatant shams. It is courting continued ridicule to misuse myth within a Hindu context. Within Hinduism, there is no Trinity and also no God, no Lord, no Church and certainly no monotheism nor any theism. Futile attempts to find One Supreme Lord or Being (n.) is fundamentalism. The notion of one and indivisible, mentioned in this article, is unsound in any discipline and a block to the wisdom of the Trimurthi (indeed the triness of creation). Universalism is Christian theology and absolutism its despotic partner. Remember, we are Hindus. We are not Christians. True unity is in diversity; not in sameness; not in blindness. If we are going to use English terms, Hindu Dharma is perhaps accurately defined as monistic polymorphism.

Disrespecting Christians by misusing their terms, it is Hindus who have also perpetuated (openly and through silence) many misconceptions about aspects integral to Hindu Dharma such as Yoga, Mantra and Guru. The sham of the modern "yoga teacher" and other forms of crass commercialization are a direct result of Hindus not clarifying or standing up for their Dharma.

As born Hindus, converts and adoptives, we are all learning this great Dharma. We all make mistakes. When we cannot see or choose not to admit mistakes, problems surface. Many Hindu organizations have done an awesome amount of beneficial work for Hindu Dharma, however they, like all of us, have a lot to learn about the basics of just being a Hindu. All Hindus much beseech the primal MahaDeva Ganesha, be brave and:

STAND UP FOR DHARMA!