This week is very exciting- it's the interfaith week at Nazareth College! I've been into the Interfaith community ever since this last April, when I heard Eboo Patel speak about the interfaith movement in America, and how this generation can either build bridges for future generations to understand each other; or else we can tear down love and create hostility.
I'll take option #1.
So basically I'm building bridges all this week (figuratively,) and it's been really awesome so far. The idea behind interfaith dialogue is not to accuse, criticize, or "shop" for religions (though you can do that if you want to, it's just not the reason we're here). The reason we are here is to bring all of our ideas to the table and foster understanding and destroy fear of the unknown.
Rules for interfaith dialogue
• We bring our full religious identity to the table
• We are here to gain understanding and build relationships, not to debate other's beliefs or defend our own.
• We assume good intentions
• We honor our own and others' experiences as valid
• We assume that others have no knowledge of our own perspective and take the time to explain.
We started the week out with Hinduism. Our teacher today was Dr. Raman. It was pretty amazing to hear about their beliefs in many gods which all encompass the belief in one god, one all powerful being who has no image but is extremely reverent. The hindus started off by praising this god who they had read about in these books called the Vedas- mantras and sacred verse written by "Rishis," or "sage poets". These people's origins are unknown, but they are believed to be prophets, and they wrote the canon which became Hinduism. We talked about the differences of Karma and Dharma, and about reincarnation and the life cycle. We didn't go into detail, but Dr. Raman talked a little bit about Brahma, the creation god; Vishnu, the god of sustenance, or life; and Shiva, the god of destruction.
We visited a Hindu temple. There, we removed our shoes, as you cannot wear shoes in the holy place. Then we went up to the worship space and looked at their beautiful statues and pictures. The altar was strewn with bananas and milk jugs, all offerings to the god(s). The food is donated to the poor after it has been offered.
The thing which I really loved about hinduism is the fact that they are taught to accept all religions, because they do not assume there god is only in one single place- their god could be found in my God. This really spoke to me. The fact that their symbols just represent something that they can grasp was also cool to me. They don't worship these vague representations of god- they worship the omni-present force which they believe in, something which isn't an idol or an icon. Human nature looks for something they can picture in their minds, and that is the singular purpose behind their statues and images.
Though it was a little foreign to see all of this and to learn about it, it was a good lesson in open-mindedness, something which is absolutely necessary to employ when it comes to interfaith. So here's to learning new things and accepting new ideas!
"Peace among religions is a precondition for world peace." -Swani Agnivesh
