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Saturday, March 8, 2025

Pundit: Future of Hinduism depends on education

by

Akash Samaroo
1584 days ago
20201104
Pundit Anil Maraj speaks with Guardian Media reporter Akash Samaroo at the Ramjit and Basso Persad Temple in St Helena

Pundit Anil Maraj speaks with Guardian Media reporter Akash Samaroo at the Ramjit and Basso Persad Temple in St Helena

Michael Ramsingh

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.


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