Subramuniyaswami, Sivaya H.H. It has been a very interesting month since the last issue of our big/little newspaper went to press and on from there into your homes. It's hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by. In reflecting upon the state of the Hindu religion in the world and the progress it has made in the past nine years, a very interesting observation comes to mind.
Hinduism has blended with science, fostered meditation and yoga in homes of almost every nationality in most countries. It is far exceeding its own boundaries. Hinduism, blending with parapsychology, has infiltrated the minds of the masses from reincarnation to karma, astral projection to extraterrestrial. Through teachers and books, TV and films, Hinduism is reaching far beyond India.
Within the boundaries of Hinduism itself millions upon millions of practicing devotees have newly built and flocked to temples and cultural centers in almost every country of the world. The growth, in less than a decade, has been phenomenal in this unorganized, highly organized, disorganized, most ancient of all religions.
There have been problems, of course, that our newspaper and editorial staff (from left to right in picture: Siva Palaniswami, Siva Kumarswami who is on a Hinduism Today lecture tour in Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius, and your publisher) have had to deal with. Sometimes messengers do not always bear the best of news. In the ancient days, kings often killed the messenger when he came as a bearer of bad news.
But today, in the spirit of freedom of thought, speech and press-in this age where information is more of a product and needed more than ever before-we no longer kill the messenger. This is how Hinduism Today has served the thinking Hindus of the world and many others beyond the boundaries of the religion itself-by keeping them informed of the interrelated karmas, good, bad and mixed, within and effecting our global religion.
Corrections are being constantly made in societies, movements and homes on problems from the illegalities of wife-beating to unfair proselytization. Whose making the changes? The responsible elders and heads of religious organizations who have been kept informed by our big/little newspaper.
No, we do not want to kill the messenger, but use the message and find ways and means of correcting problems as they arise. Write to offer a constructive opinion. More importantly, write to the organization or individual involved.
Here's another observation: society destroys what it cannot absorb. This is very true in America. Look at the hippies for example, absorbed back into the community and it only took ten years. The cults, where are they today? Humanity, now coming into a New Age of shared responsibilities, has no time for the elite groups who take all and give nothing in return.
We are very happy to have the people from India in the United States, but a gentle word of advice is in order. Give back proportionately from what is earned and taken. The laws of karma grind slowly but surely. And when an ethnic group takes all from a community and nothing proportionately is given back in return, the community is antagonized and everyone in the group suffers. Not long ago we attended a religious ceremony in a Hindu Temple. There were several hundred Asian Hindus there and a few "white" Americans came into the gathering to worship. To everyone present, the Americans were not there, completely ignored. Only one alert Indian swami went out of his way to be pleasant. We felt very badly that so many there had greatly benefited from being in this abundant country and could not smile and greet the "white" Americans with love and trust. Why did they have to be regarded as intruders into the Indian community? Perhaps Hindu dharma has to be looked at clearly in the light of today. The temples may be open to those of all religions but the hearts of the people within them certainly are not. Let's loosen our heart strings and open our minds to giving, loving and winning acceptance, lest matters worsen.
Article copyright Himalayan Academy.