Re: [INDOLOGY] Gāyatrī and Scifi

Sun Apr 5 16:46:34 UTC 2020

P.S. Vasudha Narayanan's following article is also of great interest in regard to the larger question of Hindu influence on Western popular culture, as of course is Philip Goldberg's American Veda: Americans may not know it, but they’ve long been embracing Hindu philosophy

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Americans may not know it, but they’ve long been embracing Hindu philosophy

Vasudha Narayanan

The story of America’s relationship with Hinduism is long and complex.
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Dr. Jeffery D. Long
Professor of Religion and Asian Studies
Elizabethtown CollegeElizabethtown, PA
https://etown.academia.edu/JefferyLong
Series Editor, Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and PhilosophicalLexington Books
"One who makes a habit of prayer and meditation will easily overcome all difficulties and remain calm and unruffled in the midst of the trials of life."  (Holy Mother Sarada Devi)
"We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself." (Carl Sagan)

    On Sunday, April 5, 2020, 12:43:18 PM EDT, Jeffery Long via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:  

 I am delighted that the topic of science-fiction, my favorite genre, has come up on this list!
Michael, the Gāyatrī mantra, or a version of it, is indeed used in the opening credits of the re-envisioned Battlestar Galactica (a series which is a huge improvement on the original, on which I grew up in the seventies, but for which I still have a sentimental fondness).  The word pracodayāt is mispronounced as prakodayāt, presumably because the creators of the series were not aware of how the unaspirated 'c' is pronounced in the standard international transliteration system for Indic languages.  But it's clearly an attempt to sing the Gāyatrī mantra.
The series is rich with fascinating themes, including a problematizing of monotheism.  The mainstream human culture depicted in the series has multiple deities, and other interesting resonances with non-Abrahamic faiths.
Though it diverges from the topic fo the Gāyatrī mantra, others have posted on relations between aspects of Hindu thought and ideas found in popular sci-fi series.  My own humble contributions to this discourse are as follows:
A piece on Hindu themes in Star Wars.  It's the second part of a two-part series, the first being on Hindu themes in the music of George Harrison and the Beatles:
Hindu Themes in Western Popular Culture: A Tale of Two Georges, Part Two

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Hindu Themes in Western Popular Culture: A Tale of Two Georges, Part Two

By Jeffrey D. Long Introduction In the first part of this two-part series on the ‘two Georges’–Harrison and Luca...
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A live early draft of the previous article, presented at the Vedanta Society of New York in May, 2017, and called 'The Yoga of Yoda.'  I have updated and expanded both of these as I have given them repeatedly in various speaking venues:
The Yoga of Yoda by Dr. Jeffery D. Long

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The Yoga of Yoda by Dr. Jeffery D. Long

Guest Speaker Dr. Jeffery D. Long speaks on “The Yoga of Yoda” at the Vedanta Society of New York on May 28, 201...
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I owe the title, 'The Yoga of Yoda,' to Swami Sarvapriyananda, of the Vedanta Society of New York.  He knew this was a favorite topic of mine and was the person who first encouraged me to speak and write about it.
A further developed series of reflections on this topic are going to be in my forthcoming Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds, due to be published later this year by Bloomsbury.
Though Game of Thrones is technically not sci-fi, but fantasy, I have a piece on Hindu themes in Game of Thrones that is also going to be in a forthcoming edited volume by Matthew Brake on religion in Game of Thrones.
May the Force be with you!
Jeff
Dr. Jeffery D. Long
Professor of Religion and Asian Studies
Elizabethtown CollegeElizabethtown, PA
https://etown.academia.edu/JefferyLong
Series Editor, Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and PhilosophicalLexington Books
"One who makes a habit of prayer and meditation will easily overcome all difficulties and remain calm and unruffled in the midst of the trials of life."  (Holy Mother Sarada Devi)
"We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself." (Carl Sagan)

    On Sunday, April 5, 2020, 07:10:21 AM EDT, Nagaraj Paturi via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:  

 There is this book:
The Jedi in the Lotus: "Star Wars" and the Hindu Tradition https://www.amazon.in/dp/1907166114/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_wMrIEb1A00P8Q 

,.........    ........ .......... .....
Look at the first Matrix movie,” says producer Peter Rader. “It’s a yogic movie. It says that this world is an illusion. It’s about maya – that if we can cut through the illusions and connect with something larger we can do all sorts of things. Neo achieves the abilities of the advanced yogis [Paramahansa] Yogananda described, who can defy the laws of normal reality.”  

How movies embraced Hinduism (without you even noticing)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/25/movies-embraced-hinduism  
.......     .......... ............
On Sun, Apr 5, 2020, 1:44 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Michael,
There are various bits of Sanskrit throughout Galactica - at the end of the mini-series, Elosha chants the 'asato mā sadgamaya' (helpfully subtitled as 'priestess chanting in foreign language':-)); the surname of Roslin's aid Billy is Keikeya (close enough to Kaikeya to make me think:-)); Roslin's medicine is kamala extract - and so on.
I've long been wondering how this made it into the series - so far to no avail. Ron Moore, the creator of this Galactica remake, was a Cornellian, and Cornell has long had a fairly solid Sanskrit tradition - but beyond that I have no idea. If anyone on the List can contribute to this, I'd be most grateful!
(And for what it's worth, I hear the intro as svaḥ, over two notes, rather than svāhā.) 
All the best,     Antonia (outside the US, hence syfy's generosity does not reach me:-(!)
On Sat, 4 Apr 2020 at 22:01, Witzel, Michael via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear All,We have been talking about the Gāyatrī a lot.
As it is the weekend, for your amusement:
The Scifi TV channel is streaming (free) all 50+ episodes of their old "Battleship Galactica" series now: (https://www.syfy.com/battlestargalactica)
Did anyone notice that the theme song of each episode is the Gāyatrī:  "oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svāhā(!).  Tat savitur … pracodayāt"
Cheers!Michael

Michael Witzel
Wales Prof. of Sanskrit, Dept. of South Asian Studies, 1 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
ph. 1 - 617 496 2990
witzel at fas.harvard.edu
www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

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-- 
Dr Antonia Ruppel
cambridge-sanskrit.org
allthingssanskrit.com

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