Fw: Experiences in London

[Guest guest]

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" Swami Yogeshananda " <yogeshananda

" Vivekananda Centre " <vivekananda

Saturday, March 09, 2002 02:11

Re: Experiences in London

 

 

> Dear Jay,

> That was an excellent start. Are you going to tell us more, about how the

> session went?

> Regard, Ygoeshananda

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~response~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I had three sessions with this group. The first session was on

Hinduism and Interfaith.... That meeting went extremely well as

the ideas I presented came straight from the teachings of

Sri Ramakrishna. These ideas catch the attention of any group.

They present the idea of 'pluralism' and how this allows

religions to be equally valid and yet different. At such meetings

one can actually feel the audience get a 'thrill' from this teaching

of Sri Ramakrishna. A devout follower of any religion suddenly

realises that he or she is not 'under any threat' from other religions.

Nor does he or she feel the need to water down or compromise

his or her own approach to spirituality.....what a relief!

 

Perhaps the first session went too well and I suspect

someone planned to bring Hinduism down a peg or two

in the second session. The theme of the second session was

'respect for life'.... Again there is a great deal Hinduism has

to offer on this theme. The question and answer session

went off the topic and depicted Hinduism as Kali - preaching

death & destruction and animal sacrifice in the temples.......so

I had to repeat Vivekananda's name and respond !

 

The third session last night was on the theme of

'Question of evil and suffering'. Briefly what I said was

that however tempting it may be to accentuate 'evil' and

give it an absolute reality, Hinduism has kept away from

giving it such a status. Even in the Hindu mythology the 'bad guys'

are really 'misguided rouges'. ( I related the story of the two

door keepers of Vishnu who preferred to be reborn as enemies

- rather than devotees of Vishnu just so that they can be

reunited with their master more quickly : )

 

On the question of 'why suffering?' Hinduism has been

blunt. It says 'We don't know', yet we cannot stop loving

God. I did the story of Yudhishtir questioned by his queen

about why he keeps loving God despite all the suffering

they are undergoing. Yudhishtir replied: Look queen,

see these beautiful range of Himalayan mountains.... they do

nothing for me ... they donot remove any of my difficulties and yet I

love them as their grandeur just captures my heart and I cannot

help but be captivated by them..... in the same manner God just

captures my heart and I cannot help loving HIM.....what to do?

 

I then continued saying that Hinduism does not explain why there

is suffering, is not enough........It needs to have some answers

that allow it to reconcile the ideas of a compassionate God

and the suffering we see and experience. Hinduism comes up

with two explanations .....

 

One is Leela and the other is Maya..... I went on to develop

these themes .. both are unique to Hinduism and

( I think and hope) fascinated the audience.

 

On Monday I will give a talk to some students at Brunel University.

The topic is my favourite: Vivekananda.

 

On Wednesday I will talk to some students at City University

The topic is: Reincarnation.

 

Next month I hope to talk to some of the staff members of

the science faculty at Brunel.... the talk will focus on

Quantum Mechanics and Hinduism

It will be interesting to see the response from a non-theist

audience...I will let you know how it works out.

 

jay