Hindu Samskriti – Raising Children As Good Hindus -3
Posted in Labels: Hindu Samskriti – Raising Children As Good Hindus -3
Raising Children
As
Good Hindus
teach about hinduism and
the other world religions
Teach about the Vedic statement “Truth
is One, sages describe it variously.”
Hinduism is often misunderstood as being
polytheistic, worshiping
many Gods, none of which is supreme. It is
important to correct
this misconception in the minds of children.
They can be taught
that Hindus revere the great beings of light,
called Mahadevas, just
as the Catholics honor the Archangels of
Heaven. But Hindus all
worship the one Supreme Being, known in the
various denominations
by different names. Even more than that,
Hindus believe
that the immanent-transcendent Lord they
worship is indeed the
same God worshiped by all peoples of all
faiths and religions of
the world. As a country only has one king, we
can school the young
ones, so the universe has only one Supreme
Being. The oneness of
God is easily understood when we see that the
different religions
use various names to describe the same Truth.
Teaching this to our
young ones resolves many misconceptions, both
within Hinduism
itself and between Hinduism and the varied
faiths of the world.
Teach the correct meaning of the Vedic
statement “Truth is One, paths are many.”
Some Hindus teach their children that all
religions are one, thinking
this is a way to describe Sanatana Dharma’s
broad vision. However,
this is a problematic distortion of the Hindu
belief that truth
is one, paths are many. Teaching this to
children will cause them
to be half-hearted Hindus, never fully
committed to their faith and
not inspired to pass it on to their
offspring. I have seen this attitude
create indifferent Hindus who passively
attend their non-Hindu spouse’s church,
presumably thinking it doesn’t really
matter, and who think it is best to raise
their children “in both religions.”
The correct teaching is that Hindus believe
that all religions worship the same
truth, the same Supreme Being. However,
this does not mean that all religions
are identical and it doesn’t matter which
religion you follow. The beliefs and
practices
of the world religions are, in fact,
quite different. The God they worship
is one, but each of the many paths is
quite distinct. This knowledge will help
children see the world’s array of faiths
in a realistic light while pursuing their
Hindu path with full dedication.
Hindus believe that all of the
major world religions are valid
paths and everyone is well
placed in their chosen faith.
Hindus do not proselytize, meaning they
do not try to convert members of other
religions to Hinduism. Proselytizing is
based upon the belief that one’s religion
is the only true religion and therefore
everyone
in another religion should join it.
Hindus hold the opposite point of view,
which is that all faiths are good and the
members of those religions are just fine
remaining in the religions
they are in. Each religion has its unique
beliefs, practices, goals
and paths of attainment, and the doctrines of
one often conflict
with those of another. Even this should never
be cause for religious
tension or intolerance. Hindus respect all
religious traditions and
the people within them. They know that good citizens
and stable
societies are created from groups of
religious people in all nations.
However, it is important to teach children
that while Hindus
do not proselytize, Hinduism does, and always
has, accepted new
members into the religion who seek to participate
at its deepest
levels. It is simply not true, as uninformed
commentators too often
say, that you have to be born a Hindu to be a
Hindu. When
asked by a devotee about this idea, Swami
Vivekananda responded,
“Why, born aliens have been converted in the
past by crowds, and
the process is still going on.”
Hindus who marry a non-Hindu spouse who is
interested in
the Sanatana Dharma wisely encourage him or
her to study and
eventually enter the faith so they can
together raise their children
as devout Hindus, rather than being torn
between two faiths.
PART FIVE
teach how hinduism
grants experience of god
Hinduism has advanced practices within
it that many religions do not have.
If you simply want to live a virtuous, pious
life and be part of a
community of fellow believers, you will
discover that all religions
are similar at that basic level. But if you
have the desire to personally
experience God, you will only find the
advanced practices that
lead to that divine experience in a few
religions. A good example
of this fact has been occurring in Catholic
monasteries for decades.
Some of the monks in these monasteries have
the desire to
personally experience God. What do they do to
pursue this? They
turn to Hindu scriptures, such as Patanjali’s
Yoga Aphorisms, for
guidelines in deep meditation and inner
spiritual attainments, as
there are no such teachings in Christianity.
More than that, such
teachings are regarded by the Catholic Church
as heretical, and
the Vatican has directed monks and nuns
to cease all yoga practices
and return to the path of prayer. Applying a
modern analogy,
one could say that all religions are
computers designed to answer
our questions about life and God. However,
some religions are perone
personal computers, some are minicomputers,
others are mainframe
computers, but Hinduism is a supercomputer.
Belief in God is only the first step in Hinduism.
Beyond that, it offers four ways to personally
experience God. The first two ways involve
seeing the Divine in other people.
In some religions the ultimate experience
offered is to have a
strong belief in the existence of God. In
Hinduism, however, believing
in God is only a preliminary, though
important, step toward
an ever deepening personal experience of
God’s presence. Perhaps
the easiest place to start is to see God in
great religious teachers.
We feel a spiritual aura about them that is
different, uplifting and
inspiring. We see a light in their eyes and
feel a love in their presence
we do not find in others.
The second way to see God is to look deeply
into the eyes of
another person. Look beyond his or her
personality, deeper than
the intellect, and see the individual’s pure
life energy as God. In
Hindu culture we have an opportunity every
time we greet other
people through the traditional gesture of namaskara to practice
looking deeply enough into their eyes to see
God within them as
the Life of their life. This practice is an
excellent way for children
to learn that all people are divine beings.
The third and fourth ways we can experience God
are through temple worship and meditation.
The third way to see God is through the
Deity’s image in the
Hindu temple. This is the devotional, or
theistic, approach. Gods
and devas are in the inner, spiritual worlds
and are able to bless
us through the image in the temple. The image
is like a temporary
physical body they use during temple
ceremonies. Though occasionally
a devotee may have a vision of the God, the
more common
way we experience the Gods and devas is as an
uplifting, peaceful,
divine energy, or shakti, that radiates out
from the image. It
is easiest to feel their blessings at the
high point of the puja when
the flame is held high. If taught the joys of
temple worship while
toddlers, children will develop a devotional
relationship with the
Deities which will strengthen and guide them
throughout life.
The fourth way to see God is in meditation,
which is a form
of internal worship. This is the monistic, or
unitive, approach to
experiencing God—going deeply enough into our
inner consciousness
to find the essence of our soul, which is
identical with God. In
meditation we first experience God as
peaceful, blissful energies
and feelings, later as a brilliant, clear
white light and later still as
truth, consciousness and bliss, called Satchidananda,
which permeates
all of existence. Ultimately, under a satguru’s careful guidance,
we realize God as the absolute and
transcendent reality that
is timeless, formless and spaceless. In
Hinduism, this is regarded as
the summit of all knowing, the highest
spiritual attainment which
leads to moksha, spiritual liberation.
Children can be taught the basics of
meditation at an early age,
including sitting up straight, regulating the
breath and performing
hatha yoga to quiet the mental and physical
energies. These
practices will help them remain centered, and
they will mature
naturally into deeper inner experiences as
they grow up.
Hinduism focuses on personal, spiritual
transformation through the regular practice
of disciplines, called sadhana.
Reading spiritual books is certainly part of
progressing on the
Hindu path. However, much more important is
the regular practice
of religious disciplines. Our emotional,
intellectual and spiritual
natures are all significantly enhanced and
developed through
performing such disciplines regularly over a
period of many years.
The more consistently we practice, the
greater the speed of our
progress. Establishing good patterns of
spiritual practice, called
sadhana,
begins in childhood, in the home. The most successful
pattern in the home is for parents to have
their young children
join them in their morning devotionals and,
as they mature, invite
them to also participate in the meditations.
Hinduism’s spiritual practices fall into four categories.
It is fair to say that no other religion
contains such a vast wealth
of spiritual practices, from such fundamental
virtues as noninjury,
truthfulness and honesty to the advanced yoga
practices
of breath control and meditation. Hinduism’s
array
of spiritual practices can be divided into
four categories:
good conduct, service, devotion and
meditation.
Cultivating
good conduct is
the foundational practice.
Cultivating good conduct, or developing good
character,
is the foundation of all other practices in
Hinduism.
Good conduct begins with overcoming basic
instinctive patterns, such as the tendencies
to become
angry and hurtful. The ten classical
restraints, called
yamas,
help us overcome such tendencies. These
restraints are: noninjury, truthfulness,
nonstealing,
divine conduct, patience, steadfastness,
compassion,
honesty, moderate appetite and purity.
Following the
yamas naturally
leads into ten religious observances,
called the niyamas: remorse,
contentment, giving,
faith, worship of the Lord, scriptural
listening, cognition,
sacred vows, recitation and austerity. By
simply
memorizing these twenty ideals, a child
learns much
about what is expected by his faith. Good
conduct includes
performing one’s duty to family and
community,
honoring holy men, respecting elders and
atoning for
misdeeds.
Service
is the second category.
Service, also called karma yoga or seva,
refers to religious
service given without the least thought of
reward,
which has the magical effect of softening the
ego and bringing forth the soul’s innate
devotion. An
example of service is performing simple
chores at the
temple, such as sweeping the floors or
polishing the
brass. Another form of seva is
holding religious feedings
at a temple once a month. Children love to be
helpful and can be encouraged to find religious
expressions
of this urge.
Devotion is the third category.
Devotion, or bhakti yoga, centers around
regularly worshiping the
Deity at the temple and inwardly striving to
awaken a profound
love of God in our hearts, soften our
intellect and develop a deep
sense of humility. It includes devotional
singing, pilgrimage and
performing our own puja in the home shrine
room. For children,
this can be as simple as bringing a flower to
the shrine each morning
before school. Kids love the Gods, especially
Lord Ganesha,
and they can, even as toddlers, be taught to
hold hands in namaskara,
prostrate at the shrine and learn songs and
chants in praise
of their favorite Deity.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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