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Hinduism Outside India - the Future
During the past few months that I have been on the Internet I have
followed the discussions on Vedant and seen articles posted by
adherents of 'gyan maarg' as well as 'bhakti maarg' and also from those
in between. The discussions of 'advait' and 'dvait' view points and
the corresponding interpretations of the Upanishads (or prasthan trayi)
have been quite illuminating. Each sectarian attitude towards
realizing God is valid in its own way and the existence of different
'samradayas' within Hinduism is age old. These discussions have
largely focussed on the philosophy and basics of Hinduism which are a
part of the history. But there is also the present, the future and the
problems associated with hard realities.
I must admit that I have not seen the charter of alt.hindu group.
However, I presume that a discussion of what happens to world Hinduism
in future is not outside the scope of the charter. During the quarter
century that has elapsed there has been a tremendous increase of
emigration of Hindus from India. An entire generation of Hindu
children have been born or brought up outside India and there is an
alarming trend of Hinduism losing its hold on this generation. If
nothing is done to stem this trend, the future is indeed bleak. We
have seen this happening before in various parts of the world both in
remote and recent past. Just in the past few decades Fiji, West
Indies, former Guianas - countries once with large Hindu population
have all seen the decline. Ironically, the earlier, less educated and
less sophisticated generations in these countries were more successful
in preserving their culture and traditions.
I am sure that all immigrant Hindus are keenly aware of the problem.
The responsibility of course lies with the parents but the communities
as such have to come to grips with the situation. Children growing up
in India imbibe many aspects of the religion and culture subconsciously
from the family and the surroundings. For the children growing up
elsewhere the environment is entirely different. We as children did
not or could not question the beliefs handed down from generation to
generation. The child of an immigrant Hindu family finds it difficult
to accept things on faith. For example, he or she can not understand
why some gods and godesses have four or eight hands; why does Ganesh
have an elephant's head etc. Unless the parents or other grown ups
explain the rationale behind and the significance of the symbolisms the
children can not accept the traditional ways just on command. The main
problem facing Hindu parents and communities is to make children feel
proud of their religion and cultural heritage. This has to come from
within and can not be forced. It requires a concerted effort.
We need to explain to the children the ideas behind simple things like
bowing to the dieties in temples, offering flowers and fruis, lighting
lamps and incense, even taking off shoes outside temples and so on.
As they grow up they need to understand that the 'rituals' do have
significance that relates to their lives and that worship and religious
practices are simply stepping stones towards the goal of becoming
progressively a better person. At present there exist very little (to
my knowledge) by way of published material to help parents and
organizations in facilitating this task. It is the responsibility of
the 'intellectuals' in the communities to make up this deficiency. It
may not be as intellectually satisfying as discussing 'Aham Brahmasi'
or the commentaries of Shankar and Madhva, but will certainly be
rewarding to the conscience. We owe it to our heritage, we owe it to
the coming generations.
Rai-Sharma
