Posted on 09/04/2006 8:36:21 PM PDT by voletti
To be Hindu in America is much more an intentional choice than it is in India," said Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies and director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University. "Even if you're first generation, you have to decide if you perpetuate it or if you just kind of let it go.
That reality has created a challenge for Hindus here - and for their temples and cultural organisations - as they try to pass the faith on to a younger generation.
At the Ganesh Temple in Queens, founded in 1977 and one of the oldest temples in the country, there's a community centre that people can use for weddings, performances and other events; education activities from religious instruction to language lessons and academic tutoring; and the youth club that Shivraj is part of.
Those are not elements commonly found at temples in India, said Dr Uma Mysorekar, one of the temple trustees. But in India, she pointed out, they don't need to be - because Hindus are surrounded by their religion.
"We just observed and followed and never questioned," she said.
When Indian immigrants started coming to the United States in larger numbers, in the years after the 1965 revamping of immigration laws, they carried their religious traditions on as best they could, meeting for prayers and worship at one another's homes, or renting public spaces, said Anantanand Rambachan, professor of religion at St Olaf College in Minnesota.
That realisation came from seeing how religion is done in the United States. Here, Christian tradition relies heavily on doctrine, on what people believe, Rambachan said, rather than what they do. In India, the emphasis goes the opposite way, since Hinduism covers a wide spectrum of gods and beliefs, and ritual is very important.
In America, Hindus "are increasingly being challenged to articulate the Hindu tradition in a manner that places more emphasis on doctrine," Rambachan said. "People will ask, 'What do you believe?'" Rambachan said.
Faced with that, temples and cultural organisations that had been working to make outsiders understand more about the faith realised they needed to help young Indian Americans know what they believed, if the religion was going to be passed on.
"If we don't do our part, we will lose these youngsters,' Mysorekar said.
"There was a lot of foundation we had to lay even to exist as Hindus among non-Hindus," she said. "Now it is for us to do the job within our own community."
But I liked this part a lot, somehting Europw could learn from the US in how to keep religion alive:
That realisation came from seeing how religion is done in the United States. Here, Christian tradition relies heavily on doctrine, on what people believe, Rambachan said, rather than what they do. In India, the emphasis goes the opposite way, since Hinduism covers a wide spectrum of gods and beliefs, and ritual is very important.
In America, Hindus "are increasingly being challenged to articulate the Hindu tradition in a manner that places more emphasis on doctrine," Rambachan said. "People will ask, 'What do you believe?'" Rambachan said.
Yup. A hindu could believe in 1 God, no god or a million Gods and still be Hindu. Its important to be able to define the core values, the doctrinal essence that underpin the faith.
Interestingly, a HUGE Hindu temple just opened here (NW Arkansas) a few montha ago. They did it very quietly, but apparently it's kinda halfway between some large Hindu populations in Tulsa and Springfield. One of the most important swamis in Hinduism was here to dedicate it.
bump
The meaning of the term "religion" varies between cultures. Although the cross-language dictionaries all associate the English word "religion" with some word (or words) in other languages, that association can be very misleading.
In some societies, religion is about traditions and ceremonies, in others it is about moral philosophy, in yet others it is about fundamental explanations for existence, in others it is about some combination of magic, spirits and the supernatural, and in yet others it is about the afterlife, and in most it is some combination of some or all of those issues.
What are your opinions, WITHOUT GETTING ANGRY?
Hindism is more like Graeco-Roman paganism than like Judaism, Islam or Christianity.
So what?
How does this keep Hindus from explaining what their particular concept of religion means to them?
If people ask "What do you believe" and one can not come up with an answer, even if that answer is simply "I believe in tradition", then how certain can one be that one has any core beliefs at all?
It is true even in the US. Hinduism is not even a -ism, but a combination of many -isms from all over South Asia. Buddhism/Jainism would have also been part of Hinduism only if they were not so anti-caste. If you look at the core of Buddhism and Jainism, they are essentially Yogic Hinduism with athiestic twist.
Hindu sects that operate on Bhakti mode are more like western religions with devotion and worship. The yogic path is different. Hinduism was never a monolithic religion with one doctrine.
Hindus try to glue all the doctrines together by saying all those paths are valid and there is no single way for moksha(liberation), and anyone who says there is only one path is ignorant.
Hinduism can be racial/ethnic, caste, history, beliefs in numerous doctrines(some are contradictory to each other), or just plain identity. In India and Nepal, it is more identity and caste... although babas and swamis try to bring beliefs into it. But to most people, it is just plain identity.
Go ask an average "Hindu" if he is a Hindu... he will probably say, "If I am not Hindu, then what am I? Of course, I am Hindu!"
People become militant Hindu when they feel their identity threatened by "semitic religions"(basically religions emerging from Middle East, especially Islam and to a lesser and increasing extent -- Christianity).
And there are tribal Indians who hate Hinduism because it is not their ancestral religion and feel like an imperlistic religion to subjugate them. Dalits hate Hinduism because of the caste system. Those two groups openly embrace anything-other-than-Hinduism, mostly Buddhism and Christianity. Again, the case of identity, not necessarily beliefs.
Hinduism has an advantage over other religions of migrants to the US, Hinduism can and already has for the most part absorbed (adopted, pick your verb), all of the major Gods and deities of the present American population. If ala carte spirituality is the future of the US, Hinduism will have a place at the buffet.
as well as Deus Pater
"If people ask "What do you believe" and one can not come up with an answer, even if that answer is simply "I believe in tradition", then how certain can one be that one has any core beliefs at all?"
It is not about lacking beliefs, it is having TOO MANY beliefs. They believe in "core beliefs" such as existence of "the One"(Brahman/Paramatman), the numerious gods(devas) that existed throughout history, the "ideas" such as atman(soul), samsara(reincarnation), karma, dharma, etc.
To you, religion is all about "core beliefs." That's not what religion means in many other cultures--or at least, it's not the core of what it means.
In some cultures, asking "What are the core beliefs that define your religion" is like asking a Frenchman "What are the core beliefs that define being French?" The question is non-sequitur. In contrast, you can meaningfully ask an American what are the core beliefs that define an American--although we no longer agree about that as unanimously as we once did.
Ritual is far more important than belief or personal morality. Even in Judaism, the split between the Sadducees and the Pharisees reflects a similar difference. Much of the Gospels details the criticism that Jesus made of the extreme concern for ritual purity. There was an astonishing amount of concern for personal cleanliness.
The French do have core beliefs about being french. It is because they hold those core beliefs that we hate them so.
little jeremiah knows all about the Vedas ping...
I am most familiar with Hare Krishna folk, and see their ways as a whitewash promotion of what most westerners see as India's idealised mainstream culture.
Veganism, Right Living list, some excusing of Castes. Though I've also heard that the castes are what one might pass through in ONE lifetime. Not Jainism, who filter their air and may not know how the human immune system functions.
How close am I?
What does it matter, it's still evil.
No, it's far more complicated, than that kind of generalisation.
Arjuna:
Of those who love you as the Lord of Love,
Ever present in all, and those who seek you
As the nameless, formless Reality,
Which way is sure and swift, love or knowledge?
Krishna:
For those who set their hearts on me
And worship me with unfailing devotion and faith,
The way of love leads sure and swift to me.
Those who seek the transcendental Reality,
Unmanifested, without name or form,
Beyond the reach of feeling and of thought,
With their senses subdued and mind serene
And striving for the good of all beings,
They too will verily come unto me.
Yet hazardous
And slow is the path to the Unrevealed,
Difficult for physical man to tread.
But they for whom I am the goal supreme,
Who do all work renouncing self for me
And meditate on me with single-hearted devotion,
These will I swiftly rescue
From the fragment's cycle of birth and death
To fullness of eternal life in me.
Still your mind in me, still yourself in me,
And without doubt you shall be united with me,
Lord of Love, dwelling in your heart.
But if you cannot still your mind in me,
Learn to do so through the practice of meditation.
If you lack the will for such self-discipline,
Engage yourself in selfless service of all around you,
For selfless service can lead you at last to me.
If you are unable to do even this,
Surrender yourself to me in love,
Receiving success and failure with equal calmness
As granted by me.
Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice.
Better than knowledge is meditation.
But better still is surrender in love,
Because there follows immediate peace.
That one I love who is incapable of ill will,
And returns love for hatred.
Living beyond the reach of I and mine
And of pleasure and pain, full of mercy,
Contented, self-controlled, firm in faith,
With all their heart and all their mind given to me –
With such people I am in love.
Not agitating the world or by it agitated,
They stand above the sway of elation,
Competition, and fear, accepting life
Good and bad as it comes. They are pure,
Efficient, detached, ready to meet every demand
I make on them as a humble instrument of my work.
They are dear to me who run not after the pleasant
Or away from the painful, grieve not
Over the past, lust not today,
But let things come and go as they happen.
Who serve both friend and foe with equal love,
Not buoyed up by praise or cast down by blame,
Alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain,
Free from selfish attachments and self-will,
Ever full, in harmony everywhere,
Firm in faith – such as these are dear to me.
But dearest to me are those who seek me
In faith and love as life's eternal goal.
They go beyond death to immortality.
Krishna:
Those who are free from selfish attachments,
Who have mastered the senses and passions,
Act not, but are acted through by the Lord.
Listen to me now, O son of Kunti,
How one who has become an instrument
In the hands of the Lord attains the Absolute,
The supreme consummation of wisdom.
Unerring in discrimination,
Sovereign of the senses and passions,
Free from the clamor of likes and dislikes,
They lead a simple, self–reliant life
Based on meditation, using speech,
Body, and mind to serve the Lord of Love.
Free from self–will, aggressiveness, arrogance,
From the lust to possess people or things,
They are at peace with themselves and others
And enter into the unitive state.
United with the Lord, ever joyful,
Beyond the reach of self–will and sorrow,
They serve me in every living creature
And attain supreme devotion to me.
By loving me they share in my glory
And enter into my boundless being.
All their acts are performed in my service,
And through my grace they win eternal life.
Make every act an offering to me;
Regard me as your only protector.
Make every thought an offering to me;
Meditate on me always.
Drawing upon your deepest resources,
You shall overcome all difficulties
Through my grace. But if you will not heed me
In your self–will, nothing will avail you.
If you say, “I will not fight this battle,”
Your own nature will drive you into it.
If you will not fight the battle of life,
Your own karma will drive you into it.
The Lord dwells in the hearts of all creatures,
And he whirls them round on the wheel of time.
Run to him for refuge with all your strength
And peace profound will be yours through his grace.
I give you these precious words of wisdom;
Reflect on them and then choose what is best.
These are the last words I shall speak to you,
Dear one, for your spiritual fulfillment.
Be aware of me always, adore me,
Make every act an offering to me,
And you shall come to me;
This I promise, for you are dear to me.
Leave all other support, and look to me
For protection. I shall purify you
From the sins of the past. Do not grieve.
Do not share this wisdom with anyone
Who lacks in devotion or self–control,
Lacks the desire to learn, or who scoffs at me.
Those who teach this supreme mystery
Of the Gita to all those who love me
Will come to me without doubt. No one
Can render me more devoted service;
No one on earth can be more dear to me.
Those who meditate on these holy words
Worship me with wisdom and devotion.
Even those who listen to them with faith,
Free from doubts, will find a happier world.
Have you fully understood my message?
Are you free from your doubts and delusions?
Arjuna:
You have dispelled my doubts and delusions
And made me ready to fight this battle.
My faith is firm now, and I will do your will.
Krishna:
I am the same to all beings. My love
Is the same always. Nevertheless, those
Who meditate on me with devotion,
They dwell in me, and I shine forth in them.
Even the worst sinner becomes a saint
When he loves me with all his heart. This love
Will soon transform his personality
And fill his heart with peace profound.
O son of Kunti, this is my promise:
Those who love me, they shall never perish.
-Excerpts from the Bhagawad Gita (The Song of the Lord).
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