589 Quotes About Hinduism

Now I look back and realize the devastating impact that Hair's message had on my thinking, religious outlook, attitudes and morality.

Hair represented the foundational ideas that prepared us and our world for the principles that underlie today's most influential mindset -- New Age thinking.

Despite our live-for-today philosophy, eventually tomorrow came. Upon returning home, I discovered with dismay that my bank accounts were almost empty.

Little did I comprehend at the time that through this musical I was being subtly introduced to a new religious system. One song ridiculed the faith of my youth. It encouraged us not to believe in God per se, but instead, to see that we ourselves were like gods.

Nervously I looked around, but most of the audience joined in. They seemed unaware that they were praying. They didn't realize they were invoking and praising an Indian deity.

Even in Bengal, where I had spent most of my growing years, this sect (which was established there in the fifteenth century A.D.) did not display the sort of fanatic trancelike madness that we witnessed on Oxford Street or on the stage of 'Hair'.

I wondered why Westerners were so enthralled with a religious activity that didn't incite much enthusiasm even among its own people in India.

The show moved along captivatingly. In the same way that the Hare Krishna sect was glorified, suddenly so was Yoga. Yoga! Alarm bells rang in my mind. The Yoga I had seen in India was intense, arduous and serious -- a discipline taught by avowed spiritual masters who prepared their disciples for death. So why did 'Hair's' hero in the song 'Donna' go to India to see the Yoga light? Why was it associated with drugs and reincarnation and presented as such a sweet, new spiritual experience?

I became deeply committed to the New Age agenda, although I must admit I did not understand the spiritual implications. I merely longed for self-improvement and hungered after some kind of peace and love.