The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Vishva Hindu Parishad
ascetics. (The Rudra Sampraday is one
of the four branches, “sampraday,” of
the Bairagi Naga ascetics, who are devotees
(bhakta) of the god Vishnu; vaishnava
refers to devotees of Vishnu.)
Vishnuswami was an ascetic, whom
some sources name as the guru of both
Jnaneshvar and Namdev. As his name
clearly shows, Vishnuswami was a
Vaishnava, although other than this little
is known about him. His ascetic line
and its position as one of the four
Vaishnava ascetic sampradays have
been appropriated by the followers of
Vallabhacharya, whose Shuddadvaita,
or “Pure Monism,” stresses the worship
of Krishna, with Radha as his consort.
Vishuddha Chakra
In many schools of yoga, and in the
secret, ritually based religious practice
known as tantra, the vishuddha chakra
is one of the six psychic centers
(chakras) believed to exist in the subtle
body. The subtle body is an alternate
physiological system, believed to
exist on a different plane than gross
matter, but with certain correspondences
to the material body. It is visualized
as a set of six psychic centers,
which are visualized as multipetaled
lotus flowers running roughly along
the course of the spine, connected by
three vertical channels. Each of these
chakras has important symbolic associations—with
differing human capacities,
with different subtle elements
(tanmatras), and with different seed
syllables (bijaksharas) formed from
the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet,
thus encompassing all sacred sound.
Above and below these centers are the
bodily abodes of Shiva (awareness)
and Shakti (power), the two divine
principles through which the entire
universe has come into being. The
underlying assumption behind this
concept of the subtle body is thus the
homology of macrocosm and microcosm,
an essential Hindu idea since
the time of the mystical texts known as
the Upanishads.
The six chakras are traditionally enumerated
from the bottom up, and the
vishuddha chakra is the fifth. It is visualized
as a sixteen-petaled lotus, located
in the region of the throat. The petals
each contain a seed syllable formed
from a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, in
this case all sixteen of the Sanskrit vowels,
the essential connecting elements
for any meaningful speech. On a symbolic
level, the vishuddha chakra is associated
with the human capacity for
speech and respiration. It is also identified
as the bodily seat for the subtle element
of space (akasha), through which
hearing is believed to take place. For further
information see Arthur Avalon (Sir
John Woodroffe), Shakti and Shakta,
1978; and Philip S. Rawson, The Art of
Tantra, 1973.
Vishva Hindu Parishad
(“World Hindu Organization,” hereafter
VHP) Modern Hindu religious organization
affiliated with the Rashtriya
Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a conservative
Hindu organization whose express
purpose is to provide the leadership
cadre for a revitalized Hindu India. The
VHP was formed in 1964, when RSS leader
Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar met in
Bombay with a group of Hindu religious
leaders. Their immediate concern was
the upcoming visit of Pope Paul VI to
India, which they interpreted as a concealed
attempt to convert Hindus to
Christianity, and resolved to oppose by
forming an organization dedicated to
the propagation of Hinduism. For the
next fifteen years, the VHP focused its
attention on countering Christian missionary
efforts in northeastern India,
with little fanfare and little impact on
the public consciousness.
A watershed in the VHP’s public image
came in 1982, following the conversion
of some untouchables to Islam in the
Tamil Nadu village of Minakshipuram.
The VHP used this much-publicized
event as evidence that Hindu identity
was endangered and countered it by
launching a series of innovative public
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