Loving Ganesha: Chapter 22 (section1) - How to Become a Hindu--Hindu Katham Bhuyate

[Guest guest]

font-family:Arial">Namaste all,

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font-family:Arial">This is the last chapter of Loving Ganesha, chapter 22.

Speaking from a personal perspective I

don’t agree with much of this chapter and see some of it as somewhat institutional

and not necessarily in keeping with the spiritual heart of Sanatana

Dharma. However, this is only my

humble opinion and you may feel differently. This chapter can be found at

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/books/lg/lg_ch-22.html

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial">Om Shanti

font-family:Arial">Neil

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font-weight:bold">Hindu Katham Bhuyate

font-weight:bold">How to

font-weight:bold">Become a Hindu

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>From Hinduism

Today, January, 2000

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ERITABLY, CONVERSION IS A RED HOT TOPIC

IN India this month, what with the Pope's visit in November and the US

Baptists' insulting October prayers for the conversion of “900 million

people lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism.” Those who know

history know that the concept of changing one's faith is nothing new for

Hinduism. Long before Islam or Christianity had even begun, Jainism and

Buddhism contended with the Sanatana Dharma for the allegiance of India's

masses. Great Hindu saints, such as Adi Sankara, Appar and Sundarar, gained

fame in large part through their

opposition to these nascent religions -- an opposition so successful as to

practically abolish both in the land of their birth. The other edge of

conversion's sword figured when South Indian kings colonized Cambodia, Bali and

other parts of Southeast Asia, for in those days, the way of things

was the way of kings: the religion of the ruler was the religion of the

subjects.

While

Hindus are worried about Christian efforts to "save the Pagans," millions

in the West are quietly adopting Hinduism in a remarkable and

little-discussed silent conversion, a conversion no less powerful and far

more extensive than in the past. Sincere seekers in Europe, Africa and the

Americas are starting to call themselves Hindu

and seek formal entrance into the faith. They are the result of 150 years of

Hindu philosophy surging out from India in several waves: first as scriptural

translations, then itinerant holy men such as Swami Vivekananda and most

recently as part of the diaspora of Hindus out of

India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and the resulting establishment of temples and

ashrams in nearly every country of the world. The central Hindu concepts of

karma, dharma and reincarnation are now understood by tens of millions not

born in the faith but exposed to it through music, film and television, and

even commercial advertising.

There

remains a significant contingent of orthodox Hindus today who firmly preach

that Hinduism does not accept converts. They believe that one must be born a

Hindu. Outsiders, no matter how learned or devoted, must wait until another

lifetime to enter the faith. Leave alone that this opinion goes against

historical fact, many modern Hindu scholars readily

acknowledge that Hinduism does indeed accept converts. In 1899, Swami

Vivekananda proclaimed, "Why, born aliens have been converted in the

past by crowds, and the process is still going on. This statement not only

applies to aboriginal tribes, to outlying nations, and to almost all our

conquerors before the Mohammedan conquest, but also

to all those castes who find a special origin in the Puranas.

I hold that they have been aliens thus adopted." Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, former

president of India, confirms the swami's views in a brief

passage from his well-known book, The Hindu View of Life: "In a sense,

Hinduism may be regarded as the first example in the world of a missionary

religion. Only its missionary spirit is different from that associated with

the proselytizing creeds. It did not regard it as its mission to convert

humanity to any one opinion. Worshippers of different Gods and followers of

different rites were taken into the Hindu fold. The ancient practice of vratyastoma,

described fully in the Tandya Brahmana,

shows that not only individuals but whole tribes were absorbed into Hinduism.

Many modern sects accept outsiders. Dvala's Smriti lays

down rules for the simple purification of people forcibly converted to other

faiths, or of womenfolk defiled and confined for years, and even of people

who, for worldly advantage, embrace other faiths."

To the

born Hindu of today, the question of entering Hinduism may appear

unnecessary, for by one common definition Hinduism is a way of life, a

culture, both religious and secular. The Hindu is not accustomed to thinking

of his religion as a clearly defined system, distinct and different from

other systems, for it fills his every experience. It encompasses all of life.

This pure, simple view has to do, in part, with Hinduism's all-embracing

quality, to accept so many variations of belief and practice into itself. But

this view ignores the true distinctions between this way of life and the ways

of the world's other great religions. There is no denying that Hinduism is

also a distinct world religion, and to hold otherwise in today's world is a

stance fraught with risk.

If

Hinduism is not a religion, then it is not entitled to the same rights and

protections given to religion by the nations of the world. As just one

example, in colonial Trinidad, Hinduism was not recognized as a religion, Hindu

marriages were therefore considered illegal, Hindu children illegitimate and

unqualified to inherit property. A great deal of Hindu ancestral property was

forfeited to the colonial Christian government. The claim that Hinduism is

"not a religion" weakens its position socially and legally with

respect to other religions in the world community.

Among

Hinduism's four major denominations -- Vaishnavism,

Saivism, Shaktism and Smartism -- only the Smarta

lineage, represented by the various Shankaracharyas

in India such as of Sringeri and Puri, does not accept converts. Smarta

priests serving in American temples have consistently refused to perform the

namakarana samskara, the

name-giving ceremony for non-Hindus by which they could enter the religion.

But the spiritual leaders and priests of the remaining sects -- representing

perhaps ninety percent of Hindus -- actively engage in conversion rites.

The

hundreds of Hindu swamis, pandits and lay persons

who regularly travel outside India are a relatively passive band,

offering a reasoned presentation of beliefs that listeners are only expected

to consider and accept or reject. There is no proselytizing, no tearing down

of other faiths. Hindu philosophy lacks the missionary compulsion to bring

the whole world into its fold in a kind of spiritual colonialism and cultural

invasion. That kind of conversion, which has gone on in India for centuries now, has seriously

disrupted communities, turned son against father, wife against husband,

friend against friend. Coupled with the enticement of material gain and

destruction of ancient traditions, it has destroyed lives. The Hindu form of

preaching does none of this.

A

direct result of hundreds of swamis and yogis coming to the West, and of tens

of thousands of Westerners journeying to India, is the desire by some non-Hindus to

become Hindu. The question then is, "How?" This is an issue that we

faced five decades ago. Instructed by the great saint of Sri Lanka, Satguru

Siva Yogaswami, to "build a bridge between

East and West," I began my mission in America in 1957 and soon tackled the thorny

issue of just how to enter the Hindu fold. As with many Americans, I had no

prior religion. Hinduism was my first. This early experience, in my twenties,

set the pattern for my ministry in the years to come. We call the pattern

"Ethical Conversion," a six-step method that results in a sincere

and lasting commitment to the Hindu faith. The Sivacharya

priests of India explained to me that it would take

three generations to fully establish Hinduism in a new country.

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The most innovative step in ethical conversion --

and what truly makes it ethical -- is severing from any former faiths. The

devotee is asked to go back to his prior religious leader, priest, rabbi,

etc., and explain his change of belief in a face-to-face meeting. The leader

may attempt to talk the devotee out of his intention, or honor

the depth of his new commitment and understanding.

Why

such a formal process? In 1966, the Vishva Hindu Parishad issued this

definition: "'Hindu' means a

person believing in, following or respecting the eternal values of life,

ethical and spiritual, which have sprung up in Bharatkhand

[india] and includes any person calling himself a Hindu." While self-declaration remains the

basic way to enter the Hindu faith, the VHP's 1998

Dharma Samsad meeting in America called for the development of "a

process for accepting willing non-Hindus into the Hindu fold, which is an

important concern among Hindus living in America." Those concerns include

intermarriage, the need for a non-Hindu spouse to adopt the religion of his

or her mate and raise their children in a purely Hindu home. Another is the

standing policy of most Indian swamis in the West to not formally convert

their devotees to Hinduism. They give a Hindu first name, and create what may

be called an "Ardha-Hindu" --

"Half-Hindu" -- who finds himself separated by newfound belief and

practice from his old faith, but not fully embraced by his new one. The

situation gets especially precarious when it comes to raising children. Are

they Hindus, or what? The practical outcome in the last twenty years is that

they are raised with no faith.

By

setting a standard of ethical conversion, Hindus can also help alter the

otherwise predatory nature of religious conversion. If, to apply the idea to

another faith, every Hindu who wanted to become a Christian went successfully

through an ethical conversion, there would be no claims by Hindus that he had

been bribed, coerced, enticed or otherwise forced into the change. Of course,

there would also be a lot fewer conversions! Finally, this is a time when

religions are looking for ways to get along better. Unfortunately, the

disruptive conversion tactics of missionary religions are rarely on the

agenda at global meetings. By advocating ethical conversion, Hindus can

overcome the single greatest obstacle to interfaith harmony.

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