7b. HINDUISM IN NORTH AMERICA

by Dr. Earl Parvin

March 2018

II Cor. 4:1-6

There are some 1.1 billion Hindus in the world. India’s population 1.3 billion people, 80% of whom are Hindus, many seek a new life in the land of the Statue of Liberty. Traveling across the Interstate system it is not uncommon to find an East Indian as the motel operator. Many are practicing Hindus. In the last decade the number of Asians living in North America has doubled to 17 million. Three and a half million of these are from India. Most will be Hindus. Keep in mind that the greatest number of immigrants is coming from the Pacific Rim countries of Asia. As we began the 21^st. century, it was projected that the number of Asians will continue to grow, many from China. Newsweek reported that this group could affect America more than any other group since the first boat people on the Mayflower!

There are 450 Hindu temples scattered across the 50 states to service the 3,500,000 Hindus in North America. In fact, North America hosts the second largest number of Hindus after Asia with 700 million. Africa is third, with 1.4 million Hindus. The highest percentage of East Indians live in the Northeast, 32%, followed by South with 26%, West with 24% and Midwest with 19%. California has the greatest concentration of any state with 113,000, New York and New Jersey have 80,000 and 54,000, while Illinois and Texas have 46,000 and 41,000. East Indians have the highest per capita income and educational level in the US. Four out of five have professional, technical or managerial jobs. Ninety percent hold degrees and two of three hold graduate degrees. Seventy percent own their own homes.

I have visited Hindu temples in Hawaii, Los Angeles, New York City, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC and West Virginia. They are much the same. The building smells of burning incense before the myriads of idols, which have been imported from India. The idols are made of black stone, bedecked with garlands and presented with offerings of fresh fruit. The priests close the shrines from time to time to change the offerings and prepare for the next service. The services are in Indian languages and include the ringing of bells to alert the gods of homage being paid. Visitors are offered fruit, which no doubt has been presented to the gods.

The Hindu festival of Divali or lights, is perhaps the most popular celebration in the West. Hindu festivals are common enough that even the mayor of San Francisco recognized the Indian Hindu festival honoring Ganesh. Imagine how that sounded in the newspapers in India.

Hindu sacred literature includes: 1. the Vedas, [of which the Rig Vedas, a collection of over one thousand hymns, is the oldest and best known]. 2. the Upanishads, [comprised of questions and stories of philosophers who practiced extreme self-denial], 3. the Bhagavad Gita, in which is found the story of Krishna, one of ten manifestations of the god Vishnu. Krishna is said to be eternal, without fault, sustains the universe and returns love to those who offer it. They say that Krishna is a variant spelling for Christ, but obviously he is but a counterfeit.

The Hare Krishna sect, numbering 100,000, sweep in numbers of disenchanted youth who give themselves to the ascetic style of life and lengthy meditations. There are some thirty centers and seven farms where they venerate the sacred cow, study ancient India's Vedic literature and eat a vegetarian diet. One such farm is located in northern West Virginia and contains 5,000 acres. A half-million dollar palace has been built and plans are prepared to construct seven temples. Their hope is that these temples will become a major tourist attraction and make Prahubapada as well known as Christ and fix the minds of Americans on Krishna, a Hindu god.

Transcendental Meditation (TM), numbering some 300,000, is a sect of Hinduism. It is being taught in the public school system at public expense. The message of instant Nirvana is used to quiet the children for a rest period. It seems that hyper activity is on the rise.

Sikhism is another syncretistic religion from India which has drawn its monotheism from Islam, but the rest of its teachings are from Hinduism. More than 250 thousand Sikhs reside in North America and worship in their 246 temples called Gurudwaras. The baptized Sikhs wear a black beard, turban, steel bangles and carry a dagger concealed in their clothes. They worship a book, called Granth Sahib, which is literally put in a canopied bed each evening, waked each morning and placed on a podium. The leader chants a portion from the book in the daily services.

Hinduism has no creed, but there are 330 million gods available from which the devotee can choose and invoke, always keeping in mind their Caste. Hinduism is not missionary in nature, for one becomes a Hindu not by conversion, but by transmigration of the soul. The direction of this reincarnation is determined by performing good works. This includes reciting the sacred formulas and names of the many gods, pilgrimages to the temples to make offerings and performing Yoga.

Although Hinduism is not missionary in nature, it has been determined, that there is an organization, which is making a concerted effort to convert people to Hinduism, especially in America.

The basic ideas of Hinduism include belief in an Ultimate Reality. The UR is not a person, but rather a metaphysical concept. The belief suggests that there is something changeless in the midst of change taking place in the universe, among all life, human, animal and vegetative. The changelessness of the universe is called Brahman. The changeless element in life is Atman. The ultimate goal is to unite Brahman and Atman; thus stopping all change. Some suggest that this is Nihilism or non-existence.

This process takes eons of time and numerous transmigrations from one life to the next. It is said that there are 84 lakhs of rebirths. (A lakh is 100,000; = 8,400,000 rebirths!) The seeming endless pilgrimage becomes very wearying, but must be done. Cremation liberates the soul from one existence to begin another. But remember, Karma is permanent with the soul; therefore, the new life will be controlled by the Karma of the last one to use that soul.

Karma determines the direction of transmigration of the soul. Good Karma, obtained by doing good works moves one in the upward direction. Bad Karma is the opposite. All of life's experiences can be attributed to Karma from a former existence.

The pantheon of gods available to the Hindu are basically animistic. Life is attributed to inanimate objects. Although there are many gods, there are three [the Hindu Triad] which are most important. They are Brahman, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer. His helper is the elephant god Ganesh who has a human body and the head of an elephant. There are nine incarnations of the gods, including Krishna from which Hare Krishna derives. The name Hare Krishna is repeated 16,000 times per day for merit.

The ninth incarnation is Buddha, from which Buddhism derives. Another incarnation is the coming one, Kalki, who is to come after 423,000 years. How glad I am that I don't have to wait so long for the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

Nepal is the only Hindu monarchy and Benares, India, is the primary holy city of Hinduism. It is to Benares that good Hindus want to make pilgrimage for ceremonial cleansing and washing in the Sacred Ganges river, or the place to die. It is most meritorious to have one’s cadaver soaked in the Ganges river before cremation. Even the sacred cows are washed in the river along side of the mendicants.

Here in North America, Hinduism has lost some of its more gross elements of vulgar statuary and carvings on the temples, the temple prostitutes and child brides. It is quite difficult to understand the deification of sex and the symbolism of those organs. They have retained some of the finer aspects of their festivals, such as the festival of lights called Divali. In the Hindu home there will be a god shelf, including idols of the family gods, before which daily devotion and offerings are made. The family will make regular pilgrimages to sacred temples which may be miles away to earn merit, make requests or commemorate some occasion. Arriving in fine designer clothes, the devotee will change into native costume, perform ablutions, make offerings of fresh fruit, burn incense, listen to the commemorative service in the native language, leave a substantial offering before redressing to leave. There is no weekly religious service, for there is no place to sit in the temple. On can sit cross-legged on the floor.

They have an agenda, of course, which is to make Hinduism attractive to North Americans. There is a training school in Orlando, FL, to service Hindus in the west for missionary service in North America. In Hindu communities, an organization called ‘gate keepers’ is organized to watch over and protect Hindus from being evangelized by the Christian or cults.

These lonely people are open to Christian kindness and friendliness. Consider attending a Divali service and eat the Indian foods which are delicious. They will be friendly and kind. You are quite welcome. It could be the beginning of a friendship which could bring glory to God.

In a publication the following question was raised, “What is Hinduism? ”For the Hindu, humans and even the gods themselves are part of an endless series of cycles. Souls migrate from body to body, going up or down the life scale depending on their deeds. Karma is the culmination of the good or bad one brings from a previous life. The purpose of the present life is to “work it out”. This actually leads Hindus to avoid helping the poor too much because that may interfere with their process of paying for their past sins. The goal of the Hindu is to escape the desperate cycle of life and eventually, like a drop of water entering the ocean, simply merge with the eternal “force”.”