Two ancient symbols, misunderstood for millennia, reveal the hidden connections between Hinduism, Judaism, and the modern battle over identity and ideology.
This was an excellent article unfortunately it will go on deaf ears in most cases. Thank you for point this out; if you research you will find a similar article in a podzine called "Truth Revolt". Well written it was virtually the same as yours and mostly ignored!
You can only keep trying to educate people! Ignorance is at the root of most hatred; that alone is a good reason to continue!
Very informative. When hiking the Himalayas in the late 1970’s, I noticed backwards swastikas in many Buddhists temples. These were thousands of years old and learned that the nazis were 180 degree opposites.
Brilliant breakdown of how cultural symbols get weaponized for modern agendas. The Indus Valley connection really underscores something crucial: these symbols existed millenia before any modern ideology could claim them. I rmember seeing swastikas in old temple architectrue when visiting South Asia and being struck by how peaceful the context was. The whole notion that educated people can't hold both truths simultaneously (ancient Hindu origins AND Nazi misappropriation) is kinda wild tbh.
Regarding the swastika, there are Indian tribes in the US which use a version of this symbol. Yes, Hitler and the Nazis made it an odius symbol but that doesn't change the history of this device which, as mentioned in the article, is an ancient symbol in various countries and religions.
Nazis were cultural thieves. You can see non-ideological swastikas in various Asian art works including some old Kung Fu movies. Iwould not be surprised if it turns out that the hammer and sickle was some ancient idolatry before the Soviets appropriated it.
Today the Swastika means only one thing: Genocide, mass murder and Ideological Nazi terrorism. It is soaked BRIGHT RED in the blood of the 50 million people murdered in Europe and Russia, and 80 Million people killed in total, counting those murdered in the Asian East. The Swastika can never be relativised, or lessened in what it means. It means death, and will do so until the end of time.
Not at all true. Go to India and many other parts of Asia and you will find it part of vibrant living cultures and religions practiced by well over a billion people, as it has been for millennia. It's not being revised. It preceded Nazism by millennia.
My father survived the Holocaust, and growing up, the only association I experienced with the swastika was as Paul Yudt describes. However, I learned, as did my father, that its origins were in ancient Indian Hinduism. Still, despite knowing that, there remains a revulsion and fear upon the sight of them. Context is everything though. Dabbed in red paint on a synagogue door, or in a pro-Palestinian (pro-Hamas) sign is very different than seeing it in Indian art. And yet, the reflex to be repulsed persists; followed by taking a deep breath, and reminding oneself that Hindus had it first, and that we should not let Nazi barbarity take it away from its rightful place in Hindu religion and culture. Education will help, and this article is a perfect example.
The Nazis have no right to destroy the symbols of another culture! Dan, don't give them even that small victory, they are murderous monsters and thieves and I refuse to let them steal part of Hindi culture...
This article has the story wrong about the Hindu meaning of the swastika. Here's what I learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal 1967-69. A "tika" is a symbol. Many readers will have seen a Hindu with perhaps a red dot, a "tika", on their forehead. When I left my post at the end of my service, the mother of my best Nepali friend place a tika on my forehead. In a gathering of a few Nepalis in Toronto on some Hindu holiday, as the oldest person in the group, I was the one to place a tika on everyone's forehead. "Swasta" is "health". A swastika is a symbol of health. Trekking through Nepal, I could always identify a hospital or heath center by the swastika on the wall.
I am an Indian Hindu and also a professor who teaches Hindu philosophy and the Gita, and I have written a book on these subjects (The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics [Oxford University Press]).
There are many Hindu symbols and they have many meanings. The bindu is one; the lotus is one; the swastika is one; the six-angled star is one. And there are others too. The tika is a forehead mark and is somewhat different from a bindi. It can be round or a vertical line or a horizontal line or a U shape, depending on the deity it represents. On the other hand, the bindi or round dot which I wear on my forehead is somewhat different from a tika. A tika is a symbol of worship that both men and women put on. A bindi is always round (from the word bindu, a round dot). It is worn by Hindu women, not men, and a bindi today is worn at other times too, not only after worship the way a tika is. It is a symbol of the oneness of the universe and of the Goddess on whom the visible universe is based.
You say "swasta" is health. No, it is not. "Swaasthya" is health.
You are confusing two very different Sanskrit words, swaasthya and swastika. The two may sound similar to you (due to mispronunciation or wrong transcription) but they are very different and have different roots.
The Sanskrit word swaasthya, also used in Hindi and other Indian languages (please note the long "aa," the "tha" sound, and the "ya") means "health." You are confusing it with "swastika" (short "a," no "h" sound and no "y" sound).
The Sanskrit word "swastika" comes from su+asti, as explained in the article.
Swaasthya (health) comes from swa (self)+ stha (to be established). To be established in one's self is to be healthy. Note the entirely different root words and their meanings.
The swastika is an auspicious symbol that stands for the eternal cycle of life and time, and for well-being. One aspect of well-being is health, but the swastika stands for much more than just physical health.
Sanskrit is a classical language like Latin and is therefore complex. Most words have many meanings and words that sound or look like each other may not be etymologically related.
I would love to get an opportunity to talk with you if you can make the time. I traveled to Mumbai with my daughter many years ago and it was an interesting experience. Severe poverty combined with some of the kindest people I have ever met!
I believe that we don't need to allow the Nazis any symbols in our history books. Their era was a poisonous psychotic episode in which human sickness and evil took charge of an entire population. (re: M. Scott Peck, Erich Fromm, Abraham Maslow, Martin Buber) We do need to understand how that happens and how we can work to prevent it. I don't think that we collectively have that understanding yet.
It would be nice if Israel would make efforts to strip the image of the Swastika from all the histories of Nazis and deliberately restore it as one of the representations of Hindu tradition. This would be a helpful correction to our mental library of historical images.
Years ago, in my own mind, I made a note to remember to remove the Swastika from the Nazis and restore it to and reserve it for the ancient cultures of India. In 1996, a programmer colleague from India told me that the Hindus were dismayed in the 1930s when they learned that Hitler stated that the Nazis "will turn this god into a demon". The Hindus have a very wholesome tradition. Likewise, as noted in Ruth's essay, the Magen David has ancient meanings as the divine union of male and female. This is an excellent symbol of Wholeness.
Hindu backward? Reveals an appalling Christo-Eurocentric ignorance fueled by an antipathy to anything that challenges its sense of being The Truth, The Light, and The Way. But then again, all religions subscribing to the belief that theirs is the only right repeats the same doctrinaire, supremacist thinking.
Those dismissive of Hinduism should open any book of Hindi philosophy to get a little insight into the complexity and subtlety of this 5,000 year old civilization.
Hinduism is not a religion in the Western sense of the word. It's a philosophy and a way of life and has the idea that each individual is on his or her own path to liberation through many births. So there is no point interfering with anyone else or trying to convert anyone else. All will reach the goal in their own time
Point well taken. It most definitely is not a religion in the Western or even traditional sense of that word.
It is also said that there are no gods in Buddhism. Correct me if I am wrong, but one account of the Buddha's enlightenment is that as he sat under the Bo tree, first myriad gods (Devas) appeared, then devils (asuras), and finally, Mara.
Even if this version is authoritative, still, unlike in traditional religions, Buddhism does not involve worshiping Devas because these figures like their dark counterparts are taken as representations of inner human attributes.
Hinduism is a dharma. All four Indic religions are dharmas. HIndu is a name given by West Asian Muslims to non-Muslim inhabitants of the subcontinent when they entered it. From Sindhu/Indus to Hindu/Hind/Ind/India. The indigenous term is not HIndu but Sanatana Dharma, which means the dharma without beginning and without end.
Buddha did not mention God. He didn’t refute any God’s existence but neither did he affirm it.
However, as you probably know, Mahayana Buddhism and its variants in most Buddhist countries, e.g. Tibet, Thailand, Japan and among Buddhists in Nepal, Sri Lanka etc involve widespread worship of Gods and Goddesses, many of whom are the same as Hindu ones, e.g. Saraswati, Lakshmi, Shiva, Ganesha, Durga etc.
For Hindus, Gods are representatives of both outward forces (e.g. Surya, God of the Sun) and inner forces, not just in humans but in all beings.
A Hindu neighbor told me about the Hindu use and meaning of the 6-pointed star called "magen David" by Jews. She said it symbolized the presence of God. Remembering the blessing after the haftorah I had to agree. In both cases it clearly has the same origin. Having analyzed several biblical texts I also had to agree with the combination of masculine and feminine, given that even well before the common era one finds evidence that the God of Israel includes both a masculine aspect and a feminine aspect. I believe that it is that which is referred to in saying the human beings were made in the likeness of God. Even when male and female of the physical body of the first hermaphroditic human being were separated, both retained the capacity both to be distant, stern, and just and to be close, loving, and merciful.
Yes but the Hindu idea of gender is somewhat different. The Goddess is the ferocious active figure. Associated with lions and tigers. The Gods with cows
Last week I was notified that if I entered England that I would be arrested for inciting violence against the Muslims! Free speech has finally died in England...
Then tonight I received a certified letter from a company that contracted me (whose name I won't mention but sounds like "Fokker Next Gen"...Oops) that they are terminating my collaboration on production process engineering. They claim that my social media presence shines the company in a bad light! I think that fearing to speak the truth is worse!
Guess I won't be going to Europe next year!
That just means I have more time to spend in Israel next year!
I will not be silenced regarding the danger of the Muslims, the Evil Cult of Islam (ECI)!
I will defend the Jewish Citizens of my nation (USA) with my life!
I will gladly give my life in defense of the Holy Land and Greater Israel!
Because this is what it will take to defend Israel and God's plan for its people!
Interestingly no one here mentioned that the Hindu swastika point counter clockwise as opposed to the Nazi swastika point clockwise. At least it was my observation when I traveled to the far East many years ago.
This was an excellent article unfortunately it will go on deaf ears in most cases. Thank you for point this out; if you research you will find a similar article in a podzine called "Truth Revolt". Well written it was virtually the same as yours and mostly ignored!
You can only keep trying to educate people! Ignorance is at the root of most hatred; that alone is a good reason to continue!
Thank you!
Sword of God Militia!
Very informative. When hiking the Himalayas in the late 1970’s, I noticed backwards swastikas in many Buddhists temples. These were thousands of years old and learned that the nazis were 180 degree opposites.
Well written and I agree 100%
Brilliant breakdown of how cultural symbols get weaponized for modern agendas. The Indus Valley connection really underscores something crucial: these symbols existed millenia before any modern ideology could claim them. I rmember seeing swastikas in old temple architectrue when visiting South Asia and being struck by how peaceful the context was. The whole notion that educated people can't hold both truths simultaneously (ancient Hindu origins AND Nazi misappropriation) is kinda wild tbh.
Thank you for your erudite explanation. Much apprec iated.
Regarding the swastika, there are Indian tribes in the US which use a version of this symbol. Yes, Hitler and the Nazis made it an odius symbol but that doesn't change the history of this device which, as mentioned in the article, is an ancient symbol in various countries and religions.
Nazis were cultural thieves. You can see non-ideological swastikas in various Asian art works including some old Kung Fu movies. Iwould not be surprised if it turns out that the hammer and sickle was some ancient idolatry before the Soviets appropriated it.
Today the Swastika means only one thing: Genocide, mass murder and Ideological Nazi terrorism. It is soaked BRIGHT RED in the blood of the 50 million people murdered in Europe and Russia, and 80 Million people killed in total, counting those murdered in the Asian East. The Swastika can never be relativised, or lessened in what it means. It means death, and will do so until the end of time.
Not at all true. Go to India and many other parts of Asia and you will find it part of vibrant living cultures and religions practiced by well over a billion people, as it has been for millennia. It's not being revised. It preceded Nazism by millennia.
My father survived the Holocaust, and growing up, the only association I experienced with the swastika was as Paul Yudt describes. However, I learned, as did my father, that its origins were in ancient Indian Hinduism. Still, despite knowing that, there remains a revulsion and fear upon the sight of them. Context is everything though. Dabbed in red paint on a synagogue door, or in a pro-Palestinian (pro-Hamas) sign is very different than seeing it in Indian art. And yet, the reflex to be repulsed persists; followed by taking a deep breath, and reminding oneself that Hindus had it first, and that we should not let Nazi barbarity take it away from its rightful place in Hindu religion and culture. Education will help, and this article is a perfect example.
Yes, of course, the context absolutely matters. And I am also revulsed and furious when I see it used against Jews and against Israel.
Didn't you write Love's Rite?
You have written some very interesting material; my daughter did a study on you!
The Nazis have no right to destroy the symbols of another culture! Dan, don't give them even that small victory, they are murderous monsters and thieves and I refuse to let them steal part of Hindi culture...
Fuck the Nazis!
Lord forgive my language!
This article has the story wrong about the Hindu meaning of the swastika. Here's what I learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal 1967-69. A "tika" is a symbol. Many readers will have seen a Hindu with perhaps a red dot, a "tika", on their forehead. When I left my post at the end of my service, the mother of my best Nepali friend place a tika on my forehead. In a gathering of a few Nepalis in Toronto on some Hindu holiday, as the oldest person in the group, I was the one to place a tika on everyone's forehead. "Swasta" is "health". A swastika is a symbol of health. Trekking through Nepal, I could always identify a hospital or heath center by the swastika on the wall.
I am an Indian Hindu and also a professor who teaches Hindu philosophy and the Gita, and I have written a book on these subjects (The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics [Oxford University Press]).
There are many Hindu symbols and they have many meanings. The bindu is one; the lotus is one; the swastika is one; the six-angled star is one. And there are others too. The tika is a forehead mark and is somewhat different from a bindi. It can be round or a vertical line or a horizontal line or a U shape, depending on the deity it represents. On the other hand, the bindi or round dot which I wear on my forehead is somewhat different from a tika. A tika is a symbol of worship that both men and women put on. A bindi is always round (from the word bindu, a round dot). It is worn by Hindu women, not men, and a bindi today is worn at other times too, not only after worship the way a tika is. It is a symbol of the oneness of the universe and of the Goddess on whom the visible universe is based.
You say "swasta" is health. No, it is not. "Swaasthya" is health.
You are confusing two very different Sanskrit words, swaasthya and swastika. The two may sound similar to you (due to mispronunciation or wrong transcription) but they are very different and have different roots.
The Sanskrit word swaasthya, also used in Hindi and other Indian languages (please note the long "aa," the "tha" sound, and the "ya") means "health." You are confusing it with "swastika" (short "a," no "h" sound and no "y" sound).
The Sanskrit word "swastika" comes from su+asti, as explained in the article.
Swaasthya (health) comes from swa (self)+ stha (to be established). To be established in one's self is to be healthy. Note the entirely different root words and their meanings.
The swastika is an auspicious symbol that stands for the eternal cycle of life and time, and for well-being. One aspect of well-being is health, but the swastika stands for much more than just physical health.
Sanskrit is a classical language like Latin and is therefore complex. Most words have many meanings and words that sound or look like each other may not be etymologically related.
I would love to get an opportunity to talk with you if you can make the time. I traveled to Mumbai with my daughter many years ago and it was an interesting experience. Severe poverty combined with some of the kindest people I have ever met!
I believe that we don't need to allow the Nazis any symbols in our history books. Their era was a poisonous psychotic episode in which human sickness and evil took charge of an entire population. (re: M. Scott Peck, Erich Fromm, Abraham Maslow, Martin Buber) We do need to understand how that happens and how we can work to prevent it. I don't think that we collectively have that understanding yet.
It would be nice if Israel would make efforts to strip the image of the Swastika from all the histories of Nazis and deliberately restore it as one of the representations of Hindu tradition. This would be a helpful correction to our mental library of historical images.
Years ago, in my own mind, I made a note to remember to remove the Swastika from the Nazis and restore it to and reserve it for the ancient cultures of India. In 1996, a programmer colleague from India told me that the Hindus were dismayed in the 1930s when they learned that Hitler stated that the Nazis "will turn this god into a demon". The Hindus have a very wholesome tradition. Likewise, as noted in Ruth's essay, the Magen David has ancient meanings as the divine union of male and female. This is an excellent symbol of Wholeness.
Thank you for a wonderful, informative essay.
Hindu backward? Reveals an appalling Christo-Eurocentric ignorance fueled by an antipathy to anything that challenges its sense of being The Truth, The Light, and The Way. But then again, all religions subscribing to the belief that theirs is the only right repeats the same doctrinaire, supremacist thinking.
Those dismissive of Hinduism should open any book of Hindi philosophy to get a little insight into the complexity and subtlety of this 5,000 year old civilization.
Hinduism is not a religion in the Western sense of the word. It's a philosophy and a way of life and has the idea that each individual is on his or her own path to liberation through many births. So there is no point interfering with anyone else or trying to convert anyone else. All will reach the goal in their own time
Point well taken. It most definitely is not a religion in the Western or even traditional sense of that word.
It is also said that there are no gods in Buddhism. Correct me if I am wrong, but one account of the Buddha's enlightenment is that as he sat under the Bo tree, first myriad gods (Devas) appeared, then devils (asuras), and finally, Mara.
Even if this version is authoritative, still, unlike in traditional religions, Buddhism does not involve worshiping Devas because these figures like their dark counterparts are taken as representations of inner human attributes.
Thank you. Reassuring to know my observations were respectful and largely devoid of ethnocultural assumptions.
Hinduism is a dharma. All four Indic religions are dharmas. HIndu is a name given by West Asian Muslims to non-Muslim inhabitants of the subcontinent when they entered it. From Sindhu/Indus to Hindu/Hind/Ind/India. The indigenous term is not HIndu but Sanatana Dharma, which means the dharma without beginning and without end.
Buddha did not mention God. He didn’t refute any God’s existence but neither did he affirm it.
However, as you probably know, Mahayana Buddhism and its variants in most Buddhist countries, e.g. Tibet, Thailand, Japan and among Buddhists in Nepal, Sri Lanka etc involve widespread worship of Gods and Goddesses, many of whom are the same as Hindu ones, e.g. Saraswati, Lakshmi, Shiva, Ganesha, Durga etc.
For Hindus, Gods are representatives of both outward forces (e.g. Surya, God of the Sun) and inner forces, not just in humans but in all beings.
Thank you, thank you. Additional information advances understanding.
Always eager to learn because ignorance is the wisdom of the fool.
A Hindu neighbor told me about the Hindu use and meaning of the 6-pointed star called "magen David" by Jews. She said it symbolized the presence of God. Remembering the blessing after the haftorah I had to agree. In both cases it clearly has the same origin. Having analyzed several biblical texts I also had to agree with the combination of masculine and feminine, given that even well before the common era one finds evidence that the God of Israel includes both a masculine aspect and a feminine aspect. I believe that it is that which is referred to in saying the human beings were made in the likeness of God. Even when male and female of the physical body of the first hermaphroditic human being were separated, both retained the capacity both to be distant, stern, and just and to be close, loving, and merciful.
Yes but the Hindu idea of gender is somewhat different. The Goddess is the ferocious active figure. Associated with lions and tigers. The Gods with cows
My life has turned a corner tonight.
Last week I was notified that if I entered England that I would be arrested for inciting violence against the Muslims! Free speech has finally died in England...
Then tonight I received a certified letter from a company that contracted me (whose name I won't mention but sounds like "Fokker Next Gen"...Oops) that they are terminating my collaboration on production process engineering. They claim that my social media presence shines the company in a bad light! I think that fearing to speak the truth is worse!
Guess I won't be going to Europe next year!
That just means I have more time to spend in Israel next year!
I will not be silenced regarding the danger of the Muslims, the Evil Cult of Islam (ECI)!
I will defend the Jewish Citizens of my nation (USA) with my life!
I will gladly give my life in defense of the Holy Land and Greater Israel!
Because this is what it will take to defend Israel and God's plan for its people!
אנחנו חזקים
אנחנו אמיצים
אנחנו מקריבים את חיינו לאלוהים!
We are Sword of God Militia!
Amazing to find a professor of Hindu symbology and writing on a Jewish discussion site! Things that make this an interesting grab bag!
And then you have radical Abrahamic believers like me...
We are Sword of God MIlitia!
Interestingly no one here mentioned that the Hindu swastika point counter clockwise as opposed to the Nazi swastika point clockwise. At least it was my observation when I traveled to the far East many years ago.
That is a common misconception. In fact, the Hindu one can be found pointing both ways. I have images on my substack page.