The Born Again Hindu

Yesterday I went for a fancy dinner for commodities brokers in Singapore. One of the white boys there decided to lecture the rest of us on the table about Hinduism and how he has embraced it with vengeance. Selling ice to an eskimo eh? These born-again Hindus are a scary lot. These people have not been born HIndus or brought up within the Hindu faith. They have very very limited contact with the Hindu community and have never travelled to India, the birth-place of Hinduism. BUT have picked up some technical jargon. But no context. They pepper their conversations with dharma, karma and all sorts of vedic references. But often fail to get even the fundamentals right. Many of these people are very vulnerable to the Hindu cults that proliferate today. Hinduism is a lived faith - there is no one way to pray or one way to be a Hindu. But Hindus are against conversion and the best Hindus treat their faith as a highly personal encounter with the divine. The devout Hindus I know are humble people who often radiate deep contentment on their faces. They know that Hinduism is a heart-centered practice. Not just a intellectual practice.