Reverend Biddington, Reverend Ministers of the St Peter's Chaplaincy. Distinguished Speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen!  I am delighted to be with you this evening. I thank Rev. Biddington most warmly for inviting me to make the Hindu response.  I begin with a Universal Prayer to wish every one well.

In promoting Multi-faith and Multi-cultural understanding in Higher Education in this great City of Manchester, the first step is to recognise, as Hindus always do recognise, the universal relationship that exists amongst humans.  So let me give recognition to this universal relationship by respectfully greeting you all, all the members of different faith communities attending this conference, in the traditional Hindu way.  I greet you, as the people of God and fellow seekers of Truth, with my hands joined together and brought near the heart, with my head bowed in reverence to you all and with the greeting 'NAMASTE'.

With this Hindu gesture, I salute you and also salute the spark of divine spirit that is within every one of you.  The act of placing hands near the heart signifies that all of you, belonging to different faiths, are close to my heart. 

The spirit of universalism is encapsulated in the Hindu saying:

'Vasudhaiva Kutmbakam' -

This means that the whole world is one extended human family, is my own family.  It is the slogan of the brotherhood of humans.  Hinduism encourages an understanding and respect for other faiths and faith-followers.  This Hindu attitude does help to promote community harmony. 

I consider the choice of this university chaplaincy-setting as the conference venue is very appropriate, because the word 'University', in Sanskrit, means 'Viswa Vidyalaya': an institute where scholars from all over the world gather to interact with one another and to receive knowledge and wisdom of the entire world.

Thousands of young scholars from different lands and belonging to different faith communities come to Manchester with a dream, a dream to succeed in their pursuit of learning.  We, from the faith communities will help them to make their dream come true and will encourage them to engage in a respectful dialogue with members of other faiths. Through my work with the Manchester Interfaith Forum, I've been engaged in such a dialogue.

We must treat all students with respect and sensitivity.  We should encourage them to compare other faith traditions to their own to discover how much they have in common, to learn and benefit from one another. We don't have to convert each other. Hindus don't convert others; they convert themselves through a process of multi-faith understanding to reach a higher level of spirituality

So, Hinduism has a great role to play in promoting Multi-faith understanding and a brief discussion on Hinduism will be useful at this stage.

Hinduism is democratic in its outlook, is not dogmatic and it allows different interpretations of its faith principles.  It respects the views and beliefs of different sects within Hinduism and the teachings of other world faiths. With this fact in mind, I wish to share with you my thoughts and impressions on being a Hindu. This religious experience begins at home.

It was in my home in Calcutta that I learnt the principles of Hinduism from my parents: mainly from their Hindu way of life, from their devotional worship and from various religious festivals I attended with my parents.  I noticed that religious practices differed from one Hindu community to another, yet I found a living unity amidst diversity in Hinduism. It sometimes makes one wonder:  Just what the Hindu faith truly means. 

Let me define Hinduism as:

Hinduism is a way of life according to the principles of the Vedas.

Hinduism is an eternal quest for Truth and Truth is God. A Hindu is not content merely with the search but pursues the quest for the realization of God in his/her life through rituals and spiritual awakening.

For a Hindu, God-consciousness begins from a very early age.

When I was 7 years old, my mother recited a poem to me. The poem is about a little Hindu girl who was asked by her primary school teacher to describe her family to the class.  She went on like this - 'We are five in the family; my mum and dad, my little brother and I that make four of us and with our God, who lives in our prayer room Tulsi plant, make up our family of five.'

A Hindu believes that the Tulsi plant is the abode of God Hari, who constantly protects the family from all evil and misfortune. Thus a Hindu child thus grows up with the idea that God is a member of his family and God is always with him. This religious belief grows on him and with him like one of his limbs and becomes his way of life.

Every Hindu home has a shrine, it is a miniature temple with images and pictures of deities where the family members worship daily and pray.  Not all Hindus visit a temple on a particular day of the week to pray. Their act of worship is not a part time job, rather a full time devotion to their chosen deity.  Saying a prayer is a starter but is not a sure indication that one is truly religious. What is expected of a religious person is a life of practising righteousness, of thinking noble thoughts and doing noble deeds, as is done by a Hindu.

One God - Many Images

Hinduism considers God as one, though he appears in many forms, not many gods but many appearances of the same god.  One God - many images,

The issue about the Hindus worshipping many gods needs elaboration.  Hindus believe that there is one God of all virtues which are manifest through differently named images who they worship. Each image proclaims one specific virtue, one particular quality or emphasising one special attribute of the same God.  Indeed all this is poetic imagination and only mind thinking intensely about God can picture so many images.  To make our point clear about one God, let us think of the many reflections of the sun on various lakes, rivers and pools.  We do not say there are a thousand suns but do see a thousand images of the same sun.  A Hindu sees his/her God manifested in many things but accepts one God.

Symbolism - the ancient Hindu sages were imaginative so they created many images, each image representing a divine attribute, for example, a symbol for the goddess of learning and creative arts is goddess Saraswati and there are many such images.

The holy Cross is a symbol and I have seen crosses in different shapes, sizes, ornamented or made simply of leaves and twigs - all point to the greatest sacrifice made for the deliverance of humankind.

Symbolism adds a new dimension to an image of a deity and point to nobler ideals and thoughts that will lead us to a higher level of spirituality.

Hindus believe that Truth is not the monopoly of one religion, although each faith contains a portion of the whole Truth.  There is no Premier League Table of religions. I often hear people using the term 'non-believers' referring to the followers of a faith different from theirs. I consider this a sign of arrogance of people ignorant of the noble thoughts of other faiths. To ensure religious harmony we must refrain from ever using the word 'non-believers'.

Let me conclude with the following words:

Hindus believe that God created human beings to respond to His love in worship, adoration and thankfulness and to rejoice in the countless blessings in nature.  Sadly we humans in our folly are bent on destroying God's creation. Religious intolerance is an evil and is often the root cause of troubles. May we respect the followers of other faiths and learning from their faith teachings, enrich our own spiritual knowledge.

In promoting multi-faith understanding, we should take a lesson from the event on 9/11, which was a crime against humanity. It happened because of hatred and no Love for fellow human beings. Let us pray for tolerance, forgiveness, understanding and respect for others so that this type of mass killing and terrorism may never happen again. Hindu liberal views will contribute to transforming all good Christians, good Moslems, good Hindus and followers of different faiths to become better humans, better citizens of the world and to make the world a much better place to live in.

Lastly, I wish to recite a couplet written by Poet Tagore in Bengali.

'Dohai toder ektuku chup kar,
Bhalobasibarey de amare abasar.'

The Poet says in this couplet -

For God's sake, hold your tongue and
Let me love everyone and never shall I cease to love humanity.
OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti - May there be Peace everywhere and May that Peace come to you and to me.

Thank you for giving me your kind attention.

Ajit Halder

St Peter's Chaplaincy is a resource for exploring the life of faith. It seeks to be inclusive, open and welcoming, offering companionship on the Journey
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