The Encyclopedia of World Religions

King, Martin Luther, Jr. S 253

taught in the B HAGAVAD -G ITA , is the discipline or yoga of uniting oneself with G OD through righteous action in the world. The term also commonly refers to the consequences of actions, even actions of the mind, reminding us that every thought, word, and deed will have consequences for the doer, good or bad, depending on the nature of the action. The consequence may come out in one’s future life, though karma is not limited to reincarnation. King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1929–1968) the most important leader of the civil rights movement in the United States Martin Luther King Jr. was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. His father and grandfather were Baptist ministers, and King followed in their footsteps. He took degrees from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and the School of Theology at Boston University. During these years he was profoundly influenced by the writings of Henry David Thoreau, especially his essay on “Civil Disobedience,” the social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch, the nonviolent resistance movement of Mohandas G ANDHI , and a school of theology in Boston known as “personalism.” A visit to India later in life reinforced the impact of Gandhi’s teachings on King. King’s first pastorate was in Montgomery, Ala bama. At that time the Montgomery public trans portation system required blacks to sit in the back of buses. King was chosen to lead a boycott in pro test of this practice. It made him into a national figure. Soon he founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to organize otherwise frag mented civil rights efforts. King’s goal was to overcome the barriers that separated whites and blacks. King expressed this goal perhaps most eloquently in the famous “I Have a Dream” speech that he gave during the March on Washington in August 1963: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. . . . I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama . . . will be transformed into a situation where little black

adivasis, the “original inhabitants” or commonly “tribals,” also sacrifice animals.) The most famous temple to Kali is the Kalighat temple in Kolkata (Calcutta). In fact, it is from this temple that the city of Kolkata took its name. Further reading: June McDaniel, Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Rachel Fell McDermott, Singing to the Goddess: Poems to K¯al¯i and Uma¯ from Bengal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Rachel Fell McDermott and Jeffrey J. Kripal, eds., Encountering K¯al¯i: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). kami The gods of S HINTO . Some kami are nature spirits, dwelling in great trees, waterfalls, rocks, or mountains. Some are the spirits of famous persons regarded as kami after their deaths. Most origi nally functioned as protectors of particular com munities, clans, families, or occupations, though some are worshipped by the nation as a whole. Although they are limited rather than all-powerful gods, in the eyes of believers, the Shinto kami add a sense of life and divine presence to the beauti ful Japanese landscape. The Shinto shrines seen almost everywhere in Japan, with their distinctive torii crossbeamed gateway, are all home to one or more kami. Some shrines honor families of kami: father, mother, and child. One of the most distinc tive sets of shrines, which are found throughout the Japanese islands, are those to Inari, a god of fertility and prosperity. They have bright red or orange torii with images of foxes, messengers of this god, on either side of them. The ancient Shinto mythologies, found primarily in the books called Kojiki and Nihonshoki (or Nihongi ), tell the story of how kami made the Japanese islands and became ancestors of its imperial house.

karma Sanskrit word meaning action and the consequences of action. The word karma is used in H INDUISM , B UDDHISM , and J AINISM . Karma- YOGA ,