cultural appropriation and white washed hinduism, specifically the ‘trend’ of manifestation. a thread:

the recent trend of manifestation is seriously disappointing to see, as it’s roots in hinduism are not being acknowledged. manifestation is a hindu belief. there is info about the law of attraction and several hindu beliefs that have been gentrified, in this thread.

manifestation is derived from the law of attraction, the loa is all about thinking & manifesting the things you want to attain in your life. it comes from the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 8 Verse 6 references manifestation by saying that “Whatever state of being one remembers when he-

quits his body, that state he will attain for sure”. pooja is the act of communicating your manifestations to the divinity, and “manifesting” methods are derived from that and white washed. affirmations, visualisations and subliminals have become trendy forms of manifestation.

yoga, the third eye, chakra, karma, meditation, mudras, etc, are all hindu practices. the gentrification of pooja to be known as just a “spiritual awakening/journey” is appalling and concerning. hinduism/sanatana dharma is the oldest religion in the world, and a lot of beliefs-

are derived from it. the concepts of the third eye and the chakras originated from the vedas 500bc-1500bc, the founder of hinduism was the one who told us about the concept of chakras. please acknowledge the roots of your beliefs and make efforts to learn about it, calling it-

just “spirituality” diminishes the significance of hindu beliefs and philosophy, please don’t ignore the roots of manifestation. manifestation is not your spirituality, it is a hindu belief and that needs to be acknowledged. it is completely fine to be non-hindu and practice-

these beliefs, however it’s important to educate yourself on these practices and learn the roots of these beliefs before participating in them!

it really hits hard when you grow up being made fun of for your religion but now all of a sudden it’s trendy. recently i have seen the manifestation/reincarnation side of tik tok and it looks extremely familiar. you don’t get to be racist to indians and then go to practice their-

religion because it’s trending.

also, to add on: our deity statues are not your home decor! nor are the ganesh or “namastay” pillows yall have in your living room. our religion is not an aesthetic, many industries and countless bodies of media REFUSE to acknowledge and respect this.

a big example would be when blackpink’s “how you like that” mv featured a ganesh statue on the ground next to lisa. this is extremely disrespectful.

another insane instance is lee hyori’s white snake performance that featured the gayatri mantra. one of the most sacred and HOLY PRAYERS of hinduism. being inspired by yoga does not give you a pass to sexualise a PRAYER. it is unacceptable.

the performance and backlash warranted no apology from lee hyori and SEVERAL companies within the kpop industry continue to disrespect indian culture by appropriating bindis, henna, and several other cultural artifacts and items of significance. https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_in/article/ep4by4/k-pop-south-asia-cultural-appropriation

to conclude, manifestation is not your cute little trend, acknowledge that it is a hindu belief. for the fastest internet on the planet, south korea sure is uneducated on cultural appropriation and continues to disrespect desi kpop stans globally.