Pun­dit Anil Maraj be­lieves the fu­ture of Hin­duism in Trinidad and To­ba­go is de­pen­dent on the will­ing­ness of lead­ers of the faith to ex­plain and trans­late re­li­gious prac­tices to young peo­ple.

And Pun­dit Maraj is speak­ing from ex­pe­ri­ence, be­ing just 21 years old him­self and a mem­ber of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ Hin­du So­ci­ety.

Hin­duism is one of the world’s old­est re­li­gions, but it is deep-root­ed in In­di­an tra­di­tion mean­ing wor­ship is done in Hin­di, a lan­guage that may be more fa­mil­iar to gen­er­a­tions clos­er to the pe­ri­od of in­den­ture­ship in this coun­try.

Pun­dit Maraj be­lieves more young peo­ple would be in­volved.

“If it is we ex­plain these things to the youth, it would make it so much eas­i­er for youth to grasp what they are do­ing, for ex­am­ple when you’re singing a Bha­jan and you know the mean­ing of that Bha­jan you sing it with more heart and love, so, if you ex­plain this to the youth and give them this in­side in­for­ma­tion, they will be at­tract­ed to the poo­ja(wor­ship),” Pun­dit Maraj said at the Ramjit and Bas­so Per­sad Tem­ple in St He­le­na.

But the young Pun­dit said while some al­ready do that, more of them must make them­selves ap­proach­able to ques­tions.

“I urge you, ask your pun­dit, ask your gu­rus, don’t be afraid to ask them, it is their du­ty to ex­plain what you are do­ing, this is their role, to guide the stu­dent, teach them about the re­li­gion and show them how beau­ti­ful it is.”

When asked if there was a ‘Sun­day School’ sys­tem at re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions, the Pun­dit said oth­er than the Chin­maya Mis­sion Trinidad and To­ba­go, he is hard-pressed to think of any sys­tem in place for Hin­du re­li­gious ed­u­ca­tion out­side of the school sys­tem.

While Hin­duism is seen as a uni­ver­sal re­li­gion with be­liev­ers hav­ing the free­dom to find their own an­swers to the true mean­ing of life, it has its rules.

The slaugh­ter­ing of an­i­mals for food and the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol are frowned up­on.

Hin­dus fast on spe­cif­ic days ded­i­cat­ed to cer­tain forms of God. Pun­dit Maraj said while he would al­ways en­cour­age those of the faith to ad­here to the re­li­gion’s rules if one does not, it makes them no less of a Hin­du.

“When you go to God, and you go with a clear mind and a clean mind our God will ac­cept our prayer, I am 200 per cent sure, I al­ways en­cour­age my friends and tell them it is how you go to God in your mind, be­cause fast­ing is most­ly about cleans­ing the mind,” Pun­dit Maraj said while adding that not all re­li­gious lead­ers may share his view.

The caste sys­tem is al­so a sore point in the re­li­gion.

And it could al­so be a de­ter­rent for youth par­tic­i­pa­tion as many re­ject that an­cient so­cial or­der.

The Hin­du caste sys­tem is di­vid­ed in­to five tiers.

Brah­mins (priests and teach­ers), Ksha­triyas (war­riors and rulers), Vaishyas (farm­ers and mer­chants), Shu­dras (labour­ers) and Dal­its (out­castes). But Pun­dit Maraj said his an­swer to young Hin­dus can be found in the Bha­gavad Gi­ta.

“Bhag­wan (Lord) Kr­ish­na said that a Brah­min is how you car­ry about your­self so no mat­ter what your name is, if it is you car­ry about your­self in the prop­er way, you are con­sid­ered a Brah­min, and my take is if you cut my blood and your blood you get the same thing, so, you can­not be above no one.”

But the young pun­dit is op­ti­mistic.

He said at­ten­dances at Hin­du youth fes­ti­vals are al­ways high and he be­lieves come the year 2050, a now 51-year-old Pun­dit Maraj will still be preach­ing to a full con­gre­ga­tion.