![](\"https:\/\/static.wixstatic.com\/media\/00edbc_93fecc05af9a458baf5a842515b27de9~mv2.png\/v1\/fill\/w_548,h_280,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto\/neverhaveiever.png\")
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Life Beyond Cultural Shame.
\nA Second Gen\u2019s Perspective on Never Have I Ever.
\nBy Gopika-kanta (Gopika Sharma)
\nI remember leading the Bhakti Club at Rutgers University. The Western students loved the kirtan and embraced our genuine attempts to explain the practice of mantra meditation in an impactful way. The Indian kids? Their feelings of judgment made my insides shrivel. I hated feeling looked at by my own people as if I was less because I finally was doing the hard work of figuring out the value of my culture. But why do we have to live life like this? It feels like we either embrace our Western ideals while disregarding our cultural and religious roots, or we don\u2019t disregard our culture but just respect it from afar, engaging with religious practices in an uncommitted or lukewarm manner.
\nCan there not be more to our story? Instead of resolving our feelings of outsidership and discomfort in our youth by distancing our cultural traditions, why can\u2019t we become seekers and genuine explorers? I am personally grateful to those that encouraged me to choose seeking as opposed to merely living my life chasing personal aspirations while keeping my faith lovingly an arm\u2019s distance away. <\/p>\n
Our tradition of Bhakti Yoga has so much depth and wisdom to propel us to become the best version of ourselves. Beyond the fire, red dots and weird stories, lies a deep philosophy that illuminates a transformative and progressive way to view the world. It shapes a lens that can propel us to live a life based on service, compassion, patience, tolerance and authenticity. For me, discovering the purpose of culture and ritual as a means to cultivate these profound values has given me a new inspiration with which to live my life. It feeds my attitude of service, not just within the walls of the temple, but every interaction with every human I meet. Actively practicing Bhakti Yoga means believing in values that can transform the world, create kindness amongst all humans, and ultimately provide a truly satisfying meaning for living life. Life Beyond Cultural Shame.
\nTo read the complete article please click here: https:\/\/gopikasharma108.wixsite.com\/secondgenthoughts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![](\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/d3ccb29e3475799f83f1caf1bc38775b\/f668bb025fab9eb4-df\/s500x750\/dee1821119c7d3f9aef521b72b3fad7ea7807043.jpg\")
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\nA Second Gen’s Perspective on Never Have I Ever.
\nBy Gopika-kanta (Gopika Sharma)
\nI remember leading the Bhakti Club at Rutgers University. The Western students loved the kirtan and embraced our genuine attempts to explain the practice of mantra meditation in an impactful way. The Indian kids? Their feelings of judgment made my insides shrivel. I hated feeling looked at by my own people as if I was less because I finally was doing the hard work of figuring out the value of my culture. But why do we have to live life like this? It feels like we either embrace our Western ideals while disregarding our cultural and religious roots, or we don’t disregard our culture but just respect it from afar, engaging with religious practices in an uncommitted or lukewarm manner. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-85650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media","tag-nectar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103801,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85650\/revisions\/103801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}