Contrasting experiences at Colleges in the United Kingdom

[Guest guest]

Let us share our Contrasting experiences of presenting Hinduism at colleges in the UK.

 

Cambridge University:

We had a very interesting talk at St John's College Cambridge. In the talk we mentioned

that there are two kinds of scientists....The arrogant ones who claim to 'read the mind

of God' and the more humble ones like Dirac who are astounded with what they discover

and see a grander beauty yet to be uncovered by science. One of the students pointed

out that Dirac was closely linked with St John's College. The unique feature about the

Cambridge students was their very sincere, almost devotional approach to the subject

matter. The 'reverence' with which they heard the presentation on Raja yoga and asked

questions with so much humility was very touching. When we were about to depart, the

delegation were prepared to leave the dining table and follow us to the car!! We had to

request them not to do so but carry on with their meals. This is 'Reverence'

 

Imperial College:

The talk was well attended. Lots of freshers in the audience. They had come to

hear what 'Hinduism is all about?' We made a presentation of the foundations of Hinduism.

The unique feature of this group of students became evident by the calibre of questioning

at the end of the talk. Very profound and well thought out. At the end of the talk we asked:

How many want the next talk at Imperial to be on the 'dynamic face of Hinduism'

i.e. Life and teachings of Vivekananda?? Loud applause confirmed the overwhelming

approval by the audience. The next talk at Imperial in two weeks time will be

"Vivekananda - Face of contemporary Hinduism".

 

King's College London

We have done a total of four talks at King's covering basics to esoteric Hinduism.

The audience at the last talk was over 200....This series of talks have been the most

successful talks we have done at any college so far. We had bit of difficulty as some

of the students were fixated on Hinduism as 'Katha and Vegetarianism.' We said it is

nice to be drawn to religion by Mythological stories but at some stage one needs to

graduate from Mythology to Philosophy. On Vegetarianism we quoted: What goes in

the mouth is far less important than what come out of it... Do not forget two of the most compassionate personalities, Christ and Buddha were both non-vegetarian. These students

had asked us for literature on Vivekananda. A devotee in Singapore discovering

this need, couriered us a large selection of books. We presented some of these to King's.

We have uploaded some of the photos of King's at http://www.vivekananda.co.uk/photos.htm

 

jay

Vivekananda Centre London