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Hinduism as American New Religion
Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion by Lola Williamson (New and Alternative Religions: NYU Press) Yoga, karma, meditation, guru—these terms, once obscure, are now a part of the American lexicon. Combining Hinduism with Western concepts and values, a new hybrid form of religion has developed in the United States over the past century. In Transcendent in America, Lola Williamson traces the history of various Hindu-inspired movements in America, and argues that together they constitute a discrete category of religious practice, a distinct and identifiable form of new religion.
Williamson provides an overview of the emergence of these movements through examining exchanges between Indian Hindus and American intellectuals such as Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and illuminates how Protestant traditions of inner experience paved the way for Hindu-style movements’ acceptance in the West.
Williamson focuses on three movements—Self-Realization Fellowship, Transcendental Meditation, and Siddha Yoga—as representative of the larger of phenomenon of Hindu-inspired meditation movements. She provides a window into the beliefs and practices of followers of these movements by offering concrete examples from their words and experiences that shed light on their world view, lifestyle, and relationship with their gurus. Drawing on scholarly research, numerous interviews, and decades of personal experience with Hindu-style practices, Williamson makes a convincing case that Hindu-inspired meditation movements are distinct from both immigrant Hinduism and other forms of Asian-influenced or “New Age” groups.
Excerpt: Well before dawn when most Americans are asleep, Walter rises early to sit for meditation. He has been practicing the techniques he learned through Self-Realization Fellowship every day since 1961. "Something essential is missing," he says, "if I don't meditate:' Meanwhile, Aaron goes to the "Dome," where he is joined by a thousand others who practice Transcendental Meditation together every day. He is so used to this routine that it has become, in his words, a "biological rhythm." Jennifer, a follower of the Siddha Yoga tradition, enters her meditation room at 5:15 a.m. each morning to chant and meditate. She says, "If I can touch that place of deep stillness, even for a moment, it makes all the difference."
This book is about Walter, Aaron, Jennifer, and others like them who have practiced meditation under the auspices of a Hindu guru for twenty or more years. It is also about the meditation movements in which they participate: Self-Realization Fellowship, Transcendental Meditation, and Siddha Yoga. These are three of many such movements that, taken together, comprise a new hybrid form of religion. This new religion combines aspects of Hinduism with Western values, institutional forms, modes of teaching, and religious sensibilities. Lying at the conjunction of two worldviews, this phenomenon could be called "Hindu-inspired meditation movements," or HIMMs. Through personal, historical, and cultural lenses, this book explores the contours of Hindu-inspired meditation movements and their implications for American culture.
When I first began working on this book in the fall of 2002, I had participated for twenty-one years in Siddha Yoga and viewed myself as a devout disciple of Gurumayi, the current guru of that movement. Before that I had been involved for ten years with Transcendental Meditation. When I discovered meditation at the age of eighteen, I was overjoyed, sensing that my life's purpose had been found. Thus, I began this study with a fair degree of bias. But as I began to investigate the movements in order to write this book, I learned of some disturbing accounts of abuses that had occurred within the Siddha Yoga organization. As I continued to investigate, I found that the phenomenon of abuse—or at least some type of organizational dysfunction—was endemic to many of these groups. I realized that even though I had practiced meditation and followed the teachings I learned from Hindu gurus for many years, I was—similar to many of those I interviewed for this book—in a sense, an outsider. Neither I nor most of my informants had lived in an ashram, nor did we know the gurus personally. We didn't think that was necessary. The transformation we felt through the spiritual practices and through listening to talks by our gurus and their representatives was enough. In fact, we felt that we should distance ourselves from rumors because negativity would interfere with the tranquility we were trying to cultivate.
Yet I had to investigate these negative rumors if I was to become an expert on the movements. My bias began to take a turn in the opposite direction. It was difficult for me to continue the study because I came to believe that a cultlike atmosphere pervaded many of the movements. In 2005 I abandoned not only Siddha Yoga but also this book.
There is much reflection in the fields of anthropology and religious studies about "insider" and "outsider" perspectives. The rhetoric used by the practitioner of a religious tradition, when compared with the scholarly observer of that tradition, can be vastly different, with the former emphasizing personal experience and the latter emphasizing critical evaluation of concepts and practices. There are advantages and disadvantages to each perspective. The insider is often able to understand the heart of the religious tradition under consideration in a way that the outsider cannot. However, insiders may not have the impartiality necessary to place their views within a broader context. Dedication to their particular faith may prejudice their ability to analyze clearly. Outsiders, on the other hand, may have a more balanced perspective. Yet, their very distance from the subject under analysis may cause them to miss the essence of what makes the faith attractive to its followers.
In 2007 I returned to the investigation of HIMMs, ready to bring a sense of balance between empathy for those pursuing a Hindu-style spiritual path and critical observation of the potential perils of that path. I returned to the research with the understanding that meditation can have many benefits, as it does for those whose voices appear in Part III of this book. But I also realized that some people use Hindu-style meditation and the philosophies accompanying it to escape from facing hard truths about themselves or about people and events around them. I understood that the relationship between guru and disciple can be beautiful and edifying. But this understanding was balanced with the knowledge that giving too much power to a person in an authoritative position can have devastating consequences, both for the person of authority and for the one trusting that authority. I continued my work on this book with increased humility, realizing the complexity of the topic I had chosen to write about and knowing my conclusions would contain more questions than answers. This volume is meant to bring these questions into public discussion and to help break down the barriers, to the extent possible, between insiders and outsiders.
Because of the intricacies of this topic, multiple viewpoints are presented in this book. One viewpoint arises from people who are close to the inner workings of the organizations and who are loyal to their gurus. Another is from those who were once involved at a close level but who later left, becoming critical of the gurus and movements they once believed in. These two types of informants provided me with information presented in Part II. A third viewpoint comes from those who are intimately involved on a personal and experiential level and yet distantly involved in another sense. They visit ashrams and follow the practices but are protected from some of the difficulties and scandals of which people who are deeply involved at the organizational level may be aware. The viewpoints of these people are presented in Part III.
This book offers several unique contributions to the study of new religious movements. It examines a mid-level category between the broad "Asian religions in the West" and the narrow category of particular movements. Similarities exist among the beliefs and lifestyles of followers of various Hindu-inspired movements in the West, and these thus deserve to be classified as a genre of their own. The construct "Hindu-inspired meditation movements" could be compared to the construct "Hinduism," which has been helpful in identifying certain family characteristics even though particular sampradayas (sectarian traditions) often consider themselves to have little in common with other sampradayas. The term "Hindu-inspired meditation movements" may, in fact, be more useful than "Hinduism" because it does not encompass as much diversity.
While others have discussed the connection between Hindu elements and Western styles of organization and promotion, I also include Western religious sensibilities as part of that nexus. The American religious ethos derives primarily from Protestantism, which, according to historian of American religion Sydney Ahlstrom, has significantly informed American Catholicism and even Judaism. Most pertinent to this study is Protestantism's emphasis on personal, ecstatic religious experience.
To have a comprehensive view of HIMMs many elements must be considered, including the history and causes of their emergence, their development over the years, and the experiences, lifestyles, and understanding of those involved in them. The book is thus divided into three parts. Part I lays the foundation for the study of Hindu-inspired meditation movements by defining terms and providing historical background to the phenomenon. Part II examines three historically significant meditation movements. Part III explores the experiences, views, and lifestyles of people who have been participating in one or more of these movements for twenty or more years.
In discussing these topics, I draw on research conducted over two years (2003 and 2004) during which I visited practice sites, spoke with representatives of the movements' organizations, and read their literature. I also conducted in-depth interviews with twenty-seven practitioners, nine from each of the three groups, with a balance between males and females. I made contacts for the interviews in various ways. Since I did not know anyone involved with Self-Realization Fellowship, beginning with one lead, I acquired further contacts, who in turn recommended other possible interviewees. With Transcendental Meditation (TM), I contacted three people that I knew from my previous involvement with the movement. I also visited Fairfield, Iowa, where many TM practitioners live, and made contacts in a bookstore, and again, interviewees then referred me to others. I was involved with Siddha Yoga at the time I conducted the interviews, so I simply called on people I knew. The interviews generally lasted two hours and were conducted over two meeting times. In 2007 and 2008 I conducted more interviews with people who had been closely involved in each of the movements but had left for various reasons. These interviews helped broaden some of the "inside" information discussed in Part II.
I also draw on my own experiences. As noted above, I participated in Transcendental Meditation for ten years (1971-81) as both student and teacher of TM. The teacher training involved a preliminary course called The Science of Creative Intelligence, followed by a three-month course, which I attended in Vittel, France, in 1973. This course consisted of extended periods of meditation, listening to lectures by Maharishi, TM's guru, on audiotapes, discussion, and training in how to teach meditation. Part of the course was taught by Maharishi in person. I also participated in Siddha Yoga for twenty-four years (1981-2005), again as both student and as a leader at Siddha Yoga Centers in several cities. I took part in month-long training programs at the main Siddha Yoga ashram in the United States, which is now called Shree Muktananda Ashram, for three consecutive years in order to take on the leadership responsibilities. During the first of the training programs, I simultaneously participated in a month-long Hatha Yoga teacher training course. I spent part of nearly every summer at this ashram from 1981 until 2004 and visited other Siddha Yoga ashrams in the United States and in India as well.
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