hinduwoman

OK!
I had the theory that now there are plenty of Hindus in America and second-generation as well, pretty soon they will start having particularly holy places in USA. There will be stories of miracles, holy trees and rivers, and pilgrimage centres as important as the ones in India. It will be their way of saying they are really at home.
The process has already started to sacralize American landscape physically. Temples are conscecrated with water from Ganges and local rivers. Just this month a new temple came up in Georgia with 'holy' waters of Ganges, Kavery, Mississippi, Suwanee mingling together. Sanskrit prayers have been composed glorifying the deity in particular locations with lots of praise for the surrounding landscape. Songs and prayers are being made extolling the american states where the temples are located, in the traditional ritualistic manner.

I was right! I was right!
And there are some who keep on saying I am not in touch with true Hindu mentality! Hah!

hinduwoman

Warning to all atheists in Goergia!

You won't be able to continue with your godless ways anylonger!
The god of Georgia will be keeping a sharp eye on you from this month.

Gonzo

You should check out American Gods by Niel Gaiman. It's a fantasy book that explores what happens to gods when their faithful come to America.

Gonzo

sbaii

There is plenty of sacred dirt in the US. The natives still have claims on some of it, but there are churches with weeping statues and images of Jesus showing up everywhere. And on TV you can watch sinners being healed of their physical afflictions. Hell, a little bit of the Ganges mixed into some Georgian river is nothing.
Lets hope the new god(s) can clean up the chemical pollutants in our waters better than the gods we have now.

Corwin

'...and in related news today... an epidemic of dysentery has broken out in the state of Georgia. Apparently some religious moron illegally smuggled water from the Ganges river in India into the United States and dumped it into the Mississippi river as part of a religious dedication ceremony. The water was unfortunately contaminated, due to the nonexistant environmental regulations in the nation of India. The Indian microoranisms, being out of their natrual environment and having no natrual predators in the region, have quickly multiplied and the entire South has been quarrantined due to outbreaks of amoebic dystentery, e. Coli, cholera, and typhus. More at eleven....'

nixon

So which one of you doesn't know that the Missisippi river is around 400 miles from Georgia - and that part of the river is the part right by New Orleans, where it is about to exit the USA into the gulf of Mexico where any water from the Ganges, or anywhere else would be sterilized by the salt.

Corwin

There's a nitpicker in every crowd I guess.

I honestly wasn't paying a whole hell of a lot of attention. She said Georgia, I used Georgia. Do I care that it's about 400 miles off? Not really no. Satire's kinda like that.

[Edited to add]

Oh, and by the way... salt generally doesn't do a whole lot to sterilize much of anything. Seawater is biotically rich. Increased salinity CAN sterilize things.... but organisms like e. Coli (which typically lives in the extremely salty, highly acidic mammalian gut) aren't among them.

[ June 26, 2002: Message edited by: Corwin ]</p>

hinduwoman

Read that book. but the people who settled In USA had lost their old religions already.
Let us see how Hinduism makes out against the God of TV and credit-cards. But actually many Hindu businessmen have rituals and daily worships in their shops to satisfy the gods of cash and credit.

hinduwoman

Well, apparently Hindu groups are scouting out native sacred sites to build temples. The divine energy is already there, so not much energy would be required to make it sacred.

If they have brought along rivergods then the waters should be cleaned up fast!

The Other Michael

I finished Gaiman's "American Gods" today, and found it quite an enjoyable read.

His first book (title escapes me, but took place in London and was fairly surreal) was quite good too.

cheers,
Michael