Privileged to be Hindu

As a new immigrant from the ancient land of India, to the midwestern USA some thirty-six years ago, I was an anomaly. Almost everything was different to my twenty-one-year-old eyes. Coming from small-town India, I was not very worldly. In my case, this scenario was accentuated by my being an only child of two professional parents and arriving with a seven-week-old daughter. To top it off, we landed at Chicago's O'Hare Field in January 1967, when the mercury had dipped to seventeen below zero Fahrenheit! Looking for an Elizabeth Taylor behind gigantic mounds of snow, in cars that were far from the racy convertibles I expected, was futile, to put it mildly. Oh! I was familiar with plenty of snow in the Himalayas, where I was born. Somehow I did not include it in my imagination of my future home.

For me, coming from a background that could be termed privileged, life seemed rather difficult here, especially financially. My husband kept telling me that we were far better off than most, as he was on the faculty and not a student. At this point the one thing that helped me get through those difficult, lonely winter days, stuck at home with a little baby as my only companion, was my belief that whatever happens is for the best. Hindu Dharma had taught me to find what is good in every situation and person, so I kept connected to the goodness that is indeed part of all Creation. Perhaps because of this attitude and my extreme inexperience of life, slowly I found friendship. People were kind, and I was ever-ready to participate.

However, a few things perplexed me a lot. My husband was a professor at a Jesuit university and everyone had many children— five or six were common; some had more. One couple, later our good friends, finally ended up with eleven! An only child coming from India to this enlightened land, I could not fathom people having so many children when birth control was possible. Since my curiosity knew no bounds, finally I asked one person the reason behind this phenomenon, so common among the faculty at this university. Another new world opened up to me. They were directed by someone in Rome as to how many children they should have— amazing! I knew about family pressure but not this pressure from Rome. Then I thought I was given birth in the religion best suited to my temperament— for no way did I want someone that far away, directing my family life.

In time I found how open a tradition I belonged to, and I became a fan of my own culture. I see that as a gift of my adopted land to me. It has been a mirror in which I discovered myself, my culture, my identity, and I am grateful. As a Hindu, I came with a broad code of ethics, which I was to interpret and apply to situations as they arose. This ability to bend with in certain general guidelines has been the very strength that made my life successful here in my new home. The ability to forgive those who seem not to know the gentler universal codes was also a gift from Hindu Dharma. I allowed those who came to tell me of the danger of HELL for my family, and me to simply talk and leave. Sometimes I experienced anger at this intrusion into our life, as we were taught never to interfere in matters spiritual. Mostly I just told them that I think God must have given me birth where I fit in the best— I neither saw nor understood any need to change that fact. Hindus Dharma is not a proselytizing religion. Anyone can become a Hindu if they want to live and let live. This in fact is one necessary requirement for being a Hindu. Allow others to be, especially in matters of Spirit.

In my family life, the understanding imparted by this Wisdom Tradition has been of immense help. It has made me have a deep and abiding relationship with my spouse, who shares my beliefs. Our children, through our prayers and that of our elders, have become contributing members of American society. One of the greatest things that Hindus have achieved is their staunch belief in respecting other religions and letting them have freedom to worship in their chosen way.

My new home, the USA, is somewhat lacking in this area yet. I hear rampant and false accusations against Hindus in particular. It reality it is a genius culture, so deep in its understanding of life that it is closer to quantum physics than to the usual religions as we know them. It is a teaching tradition, which tells a human about her/ his inherent divinity— the goal is freedom from any feeling of limitations. Perhaps it is because of the difficulty of understanding among people who have been reared on a far more dogmatic thought process, that charges of polytheism, animal worship, and caste system, etc. are ascribed to a tradition that is par excellence. In its long history, it has provided us with the amazing systems of yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, and the decimal system, without which none of the computer technology would have been possible. The contribution of the Hindus has been phenomenal and abundant.

Often I have wondered why this is not recognized in my adopted land. In fact the Western media is hostile and the converting religions go to extreme efforts to produce false statements to defame this tradition, which in its long history has produced almost no terrorists or tyrants. Hindu India has to be the model for the safe survival of this home of mine, where now three generations of my family live, two of them born on this soil. This can be a country cherished by all of us, in spite of our differences. We need to understand the underlying oneness of this Universe that is explained so very well by the Hindu sacred texts. To understand is not to convert; it is to live life in greater harmony and peace. I have had the opportunity to learn this ancient and spectacular Knowledge with a brilliant Guru. It keeps me centered no matter what goes on in this ever-changing world. It allows me to be fearless and compassionate to all. Life is for living happily, not for constant guilt and fear — that is what my tradition has taught me! To my fellow citizens of this great country, I offer prayers so that together we can have better karma (willful action), to bring about a better world. Perhaps our prosperity is tarnished by our past actions, which were unkind towards the Natives of this land. Maybe that is manifest in our agitated minds and in the violence that seems to have a bigger role in our lives than it should. As an Indo-American Hindu, I believe the world can be made nobler in the future through our present actions. We are intelligent, thinking beings that have been given free will. When we collectively choose to use this ability for the good of all Creation then we will have moved into the area of INFINITE POSSIBILITIES. May it be so!

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