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Hindu Temple Robbed
Hindu Temple Robbed
Recently the Hindu Temple on 45-57 Bowne Street, Flushing, NY 11355
was robbed. The robbers tied up the priests and stole the jewelry from
the god figures and the money from the donation box. This incident seems
to me as a perfect reflection of what is happening among the Hindu
community in India and around the world.
Everyone is praising India for opening its markets and becoming a
liberated economy. People use economic prosperity as a standard to judge
if a country is successful or not. They think that if a country is
economically well off than it must be great.
If this is the case, than I must point out that the United States has
one of the highest standards of living but, as any Indian-American knows,
it is the most filthiest place. I cannot help but recount a conversation
I had with an Indian, who happened to be Hindu that was "fresh of the
boat"(no insult intended).
He told me how the people in India view America as this wonderful
place filled with happiness and success. He pointed my gaze to the tracks
and the people around the subway platform and retorted it was worse than
hell, which any New Yorker can relate to. He stated to me that he had no
friends in this country and wished he was back in India.
Clearly money isn't everything. It is so transitory that it is
possible for one to possess a great deal of it one day and lose it the
next. But there is something that is far more secure and transitory that
overshadows everything else. That being, that undying love, is
spirituality.
It is well known in many circles that a truly spiritual person is the
greatest of all men. Similarly a truly spiritual country is the greatest
of all countries.
It is the commitment to the Bhuddhist spiritual way of life that made
Japan a great economy. It lost its greatness recently, however, because,
it was so enamored with the materialistic way of things.
This is the great danger of economic success. When a country becomes
economically successful they lose their sense of self and become lazy,
thinking that their is some quality or greatness about their society that
brought them the success in the first place. With this attitude they go
to work everyday and stop going to temple, which assists them on their
spiritual quest for truth. That quality or greatness about a society
which brings success and other transitory things is the spiritual nature
of a society. The more India is spiritual, the more it funds those
qualities that invoke an inward search for truth(namely Hinduism or
Bhuddhism), the more India will be successful. So during those times of
success India should become even more spiritual.
Yet nowadays in Indian newspapers and television news reports we
constantly see segments on military advancement and new economic gains for
the country. Most people, I assume, become overjoyed when they see India
"winning" in the just mentioned categories. Why?
Will a great military and a great economy bring happiness to the
constituents of that country? In the U.S. people work endlessly. For
what? The U.S. has been secure militarily and economically for quite some
time. Yet incidents of disharmony, like the L.A. riots and Indians being
insulted and beaten are fresh on our minds. What kind of great country is
this?
Rarely or not enough do we see articles on propagation of culture and
its reasons behind it among the Indian community, which is of extreme
importance. From my experience with the Indians, I have met so far in New
York, there is certainly a lack of knowledge of the rituals and ceremonies
that we are familiar with as Hindus, or even Indians. If one was to take
a survey we would get an almost limitless number of different explanations
as to why our mothers, daughters, or sisters wear a dot on their forehead.
Do not misunderstand, however. I am not saying that economic
liberalization is bad but in order to benefit from its fruits we as
Indians or Hindus must be spiritual. This means sticking to Hindu values
such as vegetarianism and other helpful precepts.
So in conclusion, if Indians or Hindus want unity, success, and peace
than we must be spiritual and support it(namely Hinduism and Bhuddhism)
among the Indian community abroad and in India.
P.S. for those who do not understand any notion or sentence I have written
I ask that you do not respond to this letter, for it will only create
confusion and dismay among our family.
