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Interfaith Sacred Texts & Communities Series
Hindus - Dialogues - Beliefs
Report of first session
Thanks to superb teamwork of UNIITE's board and St. Cloud Hindu Community leaders,
plus St. Augustine's pastor Fr. Luke Steiner, OSB, and his team, and the Hindu Dialogues Series Chair, UNIITE's opening night of "St. Cloud Hindus in Dialogue" series was conducted at a high level at St. Aug's. There was a great feeling which we all shared right through and everything ended on a high note including the "high tea" (or coffee). Fifty-five people attending an opener is a great record for UNIITE to maintain. Publicity given to the series by the St. Cloud Times Religion Columnist Frank Lee certainly helped.
Please visit UNIITE's website at http://www.uniite.org/dialogue_Fall2005.html
for the time-frame and details of each night's schedule, especially the next one
on 9/20, 6-8 pm, at Newman Center, 396 1st Ave South, St. Cloud.
This time the Guest Presenter will be Dr. Sneh Kalia, of the Physics Department, St. Cloud State University. She will speak on "Hinduism and Women." Featured speaker Chandra Prakash will speak on "The Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga)." The closing inspirational reflection will be from Confucianism. It will be presented by Dr. Jiping Zuo who teaches in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at SCSU. She will read Master Confucius' quotes on "filial piety" concerning the relationship between the ruler and the ruled.
On the opening night, after brief introductions and welcomes from Series Chair Ralph Calabria, St. Augustine's Pastor Fr. Luke Steiner, and UNIITE's Executive Director Malcolm Nazareth, Dr. Shashi Prakash, a pscyhiatrist at the St. Cloud VAMC, led a few inspiring prayers in Sanskrit and English from the Hindu tradition. She was joined in her recitations by some Hindu leaders from the audience.
Next, Dr. Ravi Kalia, who teaches in the Mathematics Department, SCSU, and who is the Hindu Adviser on SCSU campus, offered an excellent overview of the Essence of Hinduism. Utilizing powerpoint, he dealt in part with the new theory (proposed in the 1990s by David Frawley and Subhash Kak) about the ancient origins of Hindu India which totally reverse centuries old scholarly understandings of the Aryan Invasion Theory.
The featured speaker of the series, Chandra Prakash then offered his overview of Hindu philosophy and religion as a backdrop for us to grasp the rich context of the Bhagavad Gita to which he also gave us a brief introduction. Prakash and Kalia together beautifully offered complementary understandings of Hindu religion, culture, and philosophy which enabled us to catch an authentic glimpse of a great and ancient phenomenon which takes scholars of world religions very many years to grasp.
Many questions were asked and responses were appropriately given by Prakash, R. Kalia, and Sneh Kalia. Some responses were deferred by Prakash to future sessions in the same series.
The concluding prayer was from the Baha'i Faith. It was led by Dr. Jerry Wetterling, Co-Chair of UNIITE. Prior to his prayer reading, Wetterling spoke of his own 160-year old Baha'i religion as an "infant" in contrast with the ancient, complex, and mature religion of Hinduism and echoed many participants' sentiments when he shared how honored and impressed he was by all that was presented earlier in the evening.
Sacred symbols from many religions had been placed around the sacred Hindu symbol "Aum" and a little pocketbook edition of the Bhagavad Gita which were in the center of a credence table in front of the speakers' podium. These symbols included Native American, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, and Buddhist sacred objects. There were other sacred symbols and artifacts from Hindu faith and culture including artistic ones in metal representing Lord Shiva Nataraj and Murlidhar Shri Gopi Krishna. There were beautiful oil lamps of different sizes, and literature. Some of these had been brought by Jai Maier, others by Sneh Kalia, yet others by UNIITE staff.
When the audience began to trickle into St. Aug's Parish Hall, they could hear the beautiful voice of Lata Mangeshkar singing the original words of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. During snack time at the conclusion, too, there were once again sweet strains of Indian classical music, all of it contributing to creation of "atmosphere" of Hindu India. The music was contributed by Dr. Ravi Kalia.
Most of the board members of UNIITE were present to serve the interfaith community on the opening night and all took a bow at the end of the session.
St. Augustine Parish had laid out a veritable feast of tasty snacks and beverages for the participants. Janitor Nick was there to coordinate the tidying up of the room with the help of UNIITE's board and other helpful community members. It was encouraging, too, to meet with SCSU's Honors Program Director, Dean Boyer and some of his students who are currently taking an honors course with him at SCSU on the Bhagavad Gita.
Also attending the opening session were several other SCSU faculty and leading members of the St. Cloud community, Hindu and non-Hindu, who listened with sustained interest and spoke with animation during the opening session and during the 15 minutes of "community building time" after the closing prayer. Indeed, many in the audience lingered for friendly conversations long after 8 pm.
Spread the word about the Hindu Dialogues series (UNIITE's Fall 2005 series on Sacred Texts and Communities) and be there for the three that remain. Please stay tuned by visiting http://www.uniite.org/dialogue_Fall2005.html
One can download a series brochure and flyer from the same site.
Malcolm Nazareth, Executive Director
UNIITE
Part time faculty, Community Studies Dept, SCSU
Ph: 320/230-6669
http://www.uniite.org
http://web.stcloudstate.edu/mjnazareth
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