President Obama's Hanuman statue

[london swaminathan]

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We heard in 2008 that Barack Obama carries a statue of Sri Anjaneya in his pocket. Time Magazine (June 2, 2008) and the BBC -all gave a big publicity for this Hanuman charm. What happened to this 4 hand Hanuman with Gada and Chakra statue? Is he still carrying it in his pocket? Any news from our American Indian friends?

Later Indian newspapers published a big gold plated Hanuman statue to be delivered to Obama.
Was it delivered to President Obama? Is there any puja happening in and around White House now?

Those who wanted to see the picture just google Barack Obama's monkey god charm In Times magazine.You can see the beautiful little Hanuman.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The tiny Hanuman statue - one of the many lucky talismans of president Obama..

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The gold plated Hanuman prepared for president Obama.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The bunch of talisman includes a bracelet too!

 

[Nara]

During the 2008 election people used to give all kinds of trinkets to Obama as good luck charm. He had collected some 50 to 100 of them. Among these was a small monkey, which of course can't be anything else than Hanuman for Hindus.

I am reminded of Bhumi Puja of Sri Ranganatha Temple NY, and there was a small snake in the grounds and there went a collective roar, Adi Sesha has seen fit to bless the occasion. For Hindus there is no superstition that is too superstitious.

Cheers!

 

[prasad1]

During the 2008 election people used to give all kinds of trinkets to Obama as good luck charm. He had collected some 50 to 100 of them. Among these was a small monkey, which of course can't be anything else than Hanuman for Hindus.

I am reminded of Bhumi Puja of Sri Ranganatha Temple NY, and there was a small snake in the grounds and there went a collective roar, Adi Sesha has seen fit to bless the occasion. For Hindus there is no superstition that is too superstitious.

Cheers!

That is really funny.

According to India Abroad:
Governor McDonald (of conservative Virginia, and a republican) worshiped Lord Ganesh at Dr. Dave's house before announcing his run for the office of Governor. :crazy:

 

[london swaminathan]

Dear Nara
For Hindus everything is God.They see it everywhere. Some may be superstitious. But look at the pictures in my article WHEN ANIMALS WORSHIP GOD,WHY NOT MEN? I have posted the pictures from North Indian newspapers and Tamil daily Dinamalar. A snake goes all the way to pluck Vilva leaves and put them on Shivalinga's head. A monkey goes to a Ramakatha upanyasak and blesses him.It is on You Tube as well. A goat also worshiped immediately after Iyappa Bhaktas Puja. Some are mysterious. We cant expalin why.Are they just imitating human beings. If it is an act of imitation why don't they do it in secular events?

 

[kunjuppu]

personally, i think, for obama, there is no religious significance of the hanuman or any of the other charms. charms, for me, are a good feel object, an object of affection, a comfort and optimism. i would think, for obama, it would be along the same lines, if not identical.

there is nothing right or wrong about having a charm. i only think it is foolish to think that obama suddenly started believing in hindu symbols and depended on them for victory.

again, for gov mcdonald, to have dr dave's blessing rituals, is nothing but a good feel and maybe, in this case, a victim to superstition. politicians are indeed a strange breed, and i think, superstitious to the point of silliness. take MK and his yellow shawl....

playing upon people's sensitivities and fear, and coming up with 'solutions' is big business. in india and abroad.

now, it reminds me, i should go and look for the charm to ward off ill luck that i got from turey -the ceramic evil eye guaranteed to ward off all evil.

evil eye

come to think of it, in my youth, i used to wear a silver rakshai with mandhriccha paper and viboothi inside it. wonder where it went?

 

[Nara]

personally, i think, for obama, there is no religious significance of the hanuman or any of the other charms.

K, Obama is most likely a non-believer. The reason he carries these trinkets is he is a politician. These were given to him by ordinary people and he shows them off as kind of trophies of the hopes and aspirations ordinary people project on to him. One of these charms he has is a Christian cross given to him by one of his supporters. It takes a Hindu to go nuts about a little monkey figurine he has in his collection.

London is very impressed with some snake or other doing unusual things, that is alright, but to associate definite anthropomorphic intent to these animals, that is far out.

Cheers!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

It is FAITH that work miracles. If a foreigner has more faith in our Ganesh than we do, we should NOT make fun of him.

If we do, we will be the real :loco:

A Jewish professor in USA to whom we presented tiny moorthi of Ganesh was happy.

He recognized the God immediately and spoke in detail abut the attributes of Lord Ganesh.

Initially I was a little uneasy that we are presenting an article to someone who may not even know what it is!

But later on I felt happy. God has guided me correctly in choosing the memento for this gentleman.

That is really funny.

According to India Abroad:
Governor McDonald (of conservative Virginia, and a republican) worshiped Lord Ganesh at Dr. Dave's house before announcing his run for the office of Governor. :crazy:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

"ஆண்டவன் எங்கே இருக்கிறான்?"

"ஆண்டவன் எங்கும் இருக்கிறான்!"

This is swami Dayanand Saraswathi's favorite quote.

I have heard it several times as the response given by a rural farmer (uneducated and illiterate but ) a staunch believer of the fact that the whole world is an expression and manifestation of God himself.

 

[renuka]

I will write a funny incident here which happened a few years ago.
One of my elder brothers friends a white girl from USA(his former college mate) came to see him in Malaysia and my elder bro and younger bro took her out for an indian dinner at a restaurant.

My elder bro ordered some Modaka for her and told her some cock and bull story like this..Ok its a bit obscene so bear with me.

The restaurant was near a river and my elder bro made up this story that long back in Malaysia there was a woman who used to make Vadas by the side of the river and she was getting fed up of making Vadas and one day she saw a white man bathing nude in the river and her gaze fell on his white lower regions and thought oh Ok I will make some white colored sweet filled sweet from now on and this Modakas became famous here.

Then all of a sudden the white girl told my elder bro "isnt this Modaka the favorite sweet of Lord Ganesha?"

My younger bro and elder brother almost chocked on their food with laughter!!
She knew all about Lord Ganesh too and my elder bro just could not fool her.

 

[renuka]

Dear Nara
For Hindus everything is God.They see it everywhere. Some may be superstitious. But look at the pictures in my article WHEN ANIMALS WORSHIP GOD,WHY NOT MEN? I have posted the pictures from North Indian newspapers and Tamil daily Dinamalar. A snake goes all the way to pluck Vilva leaves and put them on Shivalinga's head. A monkey goes to a Ramakatha upanyasak and blesses him.It is on You Tube as well. A goat also worshiped immediately after Iyappa Bhaktas Puja. Some are mysterious. We cant expalin why.Are they just imitating human beings. If it is an act of imitation why don't they do it in secular events?

Its not an act of imitation and further more Animals are NOT Atheists.
Wild animals have known to be calm and tame to sages and rishis.
Animals can sense purity of heart.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Why don't all the animals imitate us - if they are only imitating?

Why does not the monkey go to the Siva temple with the vilva patra - which it can pluck with so much ease than the snake?.

Why does not the snake enter the Raman katha crowd and listen to it?

There are many things beyond the wildest imaginations of humans that keep happening all the time.

Yet we turn a deaf ear and make fun of one another!

Dear Nara
For Hindus everything is God.They see it everywhere. Some may be superstitious. But look at the pictures in my article WHEN ANIMALS WORSHIP GOD,WHY NOT MEN? I have posted the pictures from North Indian newspapers and Tamil daily Dinamalar. A snake goes all the way to pluck Vilva leaves and put them on Shivalinga's head. A monkey goes to a Ramakatha upanyasak and blesses him.It is on You Tube as well. A goat also worshiped immediately after Iyappa Bhaktas Puja. Some are mysterious. We cant expalin why.Are they just imitating human beings. If it is an act of imitation why don't they do it in secular events?

 

[kunjuppu]

Why don't all the animals imitate us - if they are only imitating?

Why does not the monkey go to the Siva temple with the vilva patra - which it can pluck with so much ease than the snake?.

Why does not the snake enter the Raman katha crowd and listen to it?

There are many things beyond the wildest imaginations of humans that keep happening all the time.

Yet we turn a deaf ear and make fun of one another!

dear visa,

not sure what you are trying to say. please help me out. i find your answer very cryptic.

are you saying that by going to temples and such, monkeys are showing us a good example?

afaik snakes do not have hears. they go by the vibrations in the ground, but i could be wrong. are you saying that snakes, by exception, can hear ramayana and such like?

is it not a case of one monkey or one snake as opposed to 99.9999% being sole followers of their instinct?

really i am confused. can you take the pain and effort to make this clear to me. i really would accept your answer, whatever that may be, and whether or not, i agree with it. just clarity, is all i am looking for, if you dont mind.

if it is too much of a bother, kindly excuse this request. thank you.

 

[london swaminathan]

Dear Ms Visalakshmi Ramani
You are right. There are 4000+ people on the mailing list of Nehru Centre in London(cultural wing of High commission of India).Most of them are foreigners-non Indians. If you go to their offices you can see Nataraja and other statues, they brought from India or they got as presents. When I read some books about Upanishads written by westerners ,I was wondering whether they were reborn Rishis!Such a clarity. A few beautiful short sentences make you understand it better.

 

[london swaminathan]

Dear Renuka
What you have said is absolutely right.
There are hundreds of references in Sanskrit and Tamil literature which say that the deer and the tiger drank water from the same river without harming one another.They use these lines when they wanted to say there was a just rule by the king or there was a sage in the vicinity.
புல்வாயும் புலிப்போத்தும் ஒரு துறையில் நீர்உண்ண உலகண்டான் ஒருவந்- இப்படிப் பல வரிகள் எங்கும் விரவிக் கிடக்கின்றன.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

So also tiny children. They don't want to be carried by everyone.

They take a look at you, gaze into your eyes and decide whether to come to your or turn away from you!

Really surprising that they can scan your heart through your eyes! As they grow up they seem to lose this power!

Its not an act of imitation and further more Animals are NOT Atheists.
Wild animals have known to be calm and tame to sages and rishis.
Animals can sense purity of heart.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Ref # 15 by Mr. kunjuppu.

Dear Mr. Kunjuppu,

I believe in karmic theory and rebirth of the soul.

There are so many discrepancies in creation which we can never explained without these two concepts.

The siblings develop so differently. They are placed in their life in different status. They have different aptitudes and mental abilities.

If they inherit everything from their parents and ancestors they should be more alike!

If the animals worship God by imitation or instinct, then all the animals should be doing these things - as the cobra and monkey referred to.

But they do not. So these two must have been great bhaktas in their previous janma and the wonderful thing is that they still remember their association with god, in this janma.

The Rama bakta is born as a monkey and the Siva bakta as a snake and not the other way round.

Snakes may not have ears. But they seem to manage very well all their chores without any hands, legs and ears - including plucking the vilva patra from the thorny vilva tree!!

Those great souls must have opted to be born as animals - since they did not want to live as human beings.

Or they might have committed a sin which prevented them from being born as a man - but left their mental recordings in tact.

Do I make any sense or are you more confused than before???

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

It is true that Rishis, Acharyas and Gurus are reborn to spread the message of God and about god - from time to time.

English is the Universal language.

So probably they want to speak through that language which will reach more people than Sanskrit or Tamil.

Dear Ms Visalakshmi Ramani
You are right. There are 4000+ people on the mailing list of Nehru Centre in London(cultural wing of High commission of India).Most of them are foreigners-non Indians. If you go to their offices you can see Nataraja and other statues, they brought from India or they got as presents. When I read some books about Upanishads written by westerners ,I was wondering whether they were reborn Rishis!Such a clarity. A few beautiful short sentences make you understand it better.

 

[KRS]

I want to address the initial question posed by the author.

I am with Professor Nara Ji on this. President Obama has no interest in any religion nor divinity. He, as a politician and the evidence supports this, is probably an atheist or an agnostic, and have used religion to further his political career.

Let us not get carried away by any reports suggesting that he admires Hinduism. The man in all probability thinks that Hinduism is nothing but a home to superstitions and probably has not spent any time thinking about the faith.

He is a 'secular' liberal progressive, if we have to label him. This takes him out of any realm of appreciating any religion, including Christianity and Islam, which his parents came from.

Yes, there are some intellectuals in the west, who will appreciate what Hinduism stands for from the social-cultural viewpoint, but let us not think that they then appreciate Hinduism. Far from the truth. More importantly, I do not even think that President Obama belongs to this section of intellectual minority.

I think a lot of us Hindus don't understand the sophistication of some in the west, especially in academics who totally undermine our faith in the name of 'scholarly' studies on our scriptures and Gurus. Wendy Doniger at the U of Chicago Divinity school is a prime example. Her obsession is sex, and she has written many books on finding hidden motives of our divinity based on sex.

The lesson is this. Please do not take pride in any foreigner understanding our faith. There are exceptions, but in more instances than not, they come from a viewpoint that does not fully comprehend the breadth and width of our faith. This is because, they did not come with a blank slate as we all did, but rather with a pov, that they need in reference to how they interpret our faith to themselves.

Regards,
KRS

 

[london swaminathan]

Dear KRS
I appreciate your estimate of the Western Scholarship as very reasonable.
We have to be careful about their motives.
What you have said about Wendy is cent per cent correct.
When Dr R Nagaswamy (Archaeologist and historian) came to London we had a chat over a cup of coffee.
Please read it in lighter vein:
"Oh for her, even if Lord Nataraja lifts his leg Like for dancing, she will see sex in it " was the remark he made. For anyone new to this field, your warning is very appropriate.

 

[prasad1]

Why are we maligning a person, who is not represented here. Mr. Obama has his belief and he is asking his constituents to believe in him. He may be successful in his quest no more no less.
Why brand him with a title that might be detrimental to him. If he wants to follow some form of Hinduism, we do not have the right or the power to stop it. We all follow some form of belief system, synthesized from our personal experiences. No one can claim to be the epitome of HINDUISM.
I think we jump to conclusions too quickly.

 

[kunjuppu]

re post #23, #16,

i think KRS post #21 addresses the issue very correctly.

it is a habit in many western houses, esp those who have visited india, to have bronze status of ganesha or nataraja (both very popular). in fact indian tourist organizations and shops promote these by presenting them in vast numbers, and all ranges of size and prizes.

you will see them in the front or drawing rooms. in a pedestal. there is no religious significance, except as a show case.

incidentally, nowadays, even in some indian hindu or sikh homes, we have such presentations. also big kuthuvialkkus, polished and as a centre piece, never oiled or lit.

to devout hindus, these may appear as blasphemy. but this is what i have seen. there is scant a scent of religiosity in all these displays. these are simply collectors' items.