Interesting week....

[Guest guest]

The Vivekananda Centre has had a very interesting week.

Let us share some of our experiences.

 

On 22nd October we were invited by Coventry University to participate at a "Peace and reconciliation" talk. We presented Hindu ideas of Religious Pluralism as the key for

resolving the issue of strife in the name of religion. In Coventry we discovered the

Sarada Vedanta Society - a terraced house converted into a wonderful shrine to

Sri Sarada by a dedicated English couple (Joy and Alan Hunter).

 

On 24th October we were invited to do a Religious seminar for about

100 sixth form youngsters (17 & 18 year olds) at Edgware High School.

Some of the most weird ideas were presented by the Muslim speaker suggesting

that the Hindu word 'Brahman' is derived from 'Abraham' and Om read the Muslim

way (right to left) would bring M in the front suggesting Mohammed.

Then came the Christian speaker who seemed to have come straight from the

Bible belt (Cricklewood in this instance) going on and on about how all truth is contained

in just one book - the Bible. When time came to present Hinduism we decided to respond

in a slightly more pointed manner than usual.....at the end of the talk vast majority of

students appeared convinced of the Hindu point of view.

 

25th October was a very unusual day. Perhaps for the first time in the history of

the Anglican Church, a strictly Anglican body had arranged a one day retreat for

its mainly Christian congregation to be led by a Hindu. The theme of the retreat was

silence & meditation. We started the retreat with a quote from Matthew: "If thine eye be

single, thy whole body will be filled with light." That is a definition of meditation: "One

pointed concentration that allows one to untangle the spirit from the mind/body complex."

The retreat had four one hour sessions of guided meditation. At the end of the day the

comments we heard were very heartening. This had been a very extraordinary day that

had been very satisfactory for all concerned. May we have more encounters of this kind.

27th October On this day we were invited to address a large meeting of the Metropolitan

Police Authority drawn mainly from Scotland Yard. We focused on the important

contribution the Hindus have already made in professional fields and the even more

important contribution the Hindus will make towards restoring the spiritual health of the

host nation. Overall the week has been very fruitful.

 

jay

Vivekananda Centre London