Joining the ranks of the other successful Asian-Indian American politicians, Dr. Ami Bera, too, does not identify with the religion he was born into. He says that he is a Unitarian Universalist. Religion was not even a factor in his congressional district. Therefore we cannot say that he distanced himself from Hinduism because of political expediency. What are then the reasons that our politicians shun the religion they are born into? Are our eastern religions too esoteric, archaic and weird for our younger generation or just complex and confusing? Or are the older generations not able to articulate the basic tenets, the beatitudes and practices in a language easily comprehensible to the younger generations? Or the practices simply not cool enough in the American landscape?
In all these scenarios there is a need for introspection by us to find ways to adapt our practices, if not beliefs, to match the American landscape and to market our religions in a language that our American children can relate to. Transplanting religious practices from the Indian subcontinent as is has not worked for the second generation, although it does enhance the ethnic pride of the first generation. We have transplanted gopurams, consecrated gods in marble, goshalas, shobha yatras, kirtans, havans, hanuman chalisa, satya narayan katha, bhagwati jagaran etc. etc. and have large presence at these places, mostly of first generation Asian Indians who pride themselves with trying to instill religious and cultural values in the youngsters, and maybe of a few youngsters out of deference to their loving and caring parents and grandparents, but when the temple bells and chants fade off into silence, I wonder how many youngsters understand and will carry forward the vast baggage of ritual and myth that is displayed.
Dr Bera’s choice is a food for thought. Unitarian Universalists have only seven principles to adhere too. Can we come to a consensus about the common denominator of the vast array of Hindu beliefs and practices so that the youngsters do not have to wade through the vast jungle of Hinduism and yet learn its basic essence? Can we make the services more spiritual than ritual? Can we change the focus on how we live better on this earth than how we fare after birth? Can we, in the words of theosophist Annie Besant, highlight the best in our religion while admitting the evils of medieval practice of caste perpetrated in its name, a weakness that has been so effectively used by our detractors to malign us? All Hindus believe in an immanent God or Brahman who has created us and nature for us to enjoy, respect and preserve. All Hindus believe that the true self of a person is the eternal soul or Atman which transmigrates, basically to satisfy our existentialist need to defy or deny death. All Hindus subscribe to the five don’t and five do’s, called yums and niyams, of the first rung of yogic practice. And to top it all, Hinduism is not prescriptive; allowing us to be eclectic when the Veda says that let noble thoughts flow to us from all sides. All eastern religions will have to make their services more spiritual and linguistically and physically suitable for the American milieu. The venerable Dalai Lama has succeeded in marketing Buddhism as the philosophical Buddhism, close to Theravada Buddhism rather than as the northern Mahayana Buddhism with countless Buddhas, Boddhisatvas, Lokpalas and goddesses.
I hope that instead of looking for the causes outside we will look inside and evolve and adapt our religious practices and beliefs to suit the North American mindset of our youngsters.
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