Re: Dear European Hindus, Friends
Namaste Sudas Paijavana,
Originally Posted by
Sudas Paijavana
Greetings, Padma:
Welcome to HDF. I would like to invite you to expand a little further on your experience of Hinduism and how Hinduism was/is perceived in both Germany and the UK as per your observations, even if those observations are similar to what was described by IcySupreme. I'd love to read more from you if you would be kind as to share with detailed explanations. No rush. Take your time. Blessed be. Namaste.
Thank you for the welcome. I will try share my experiences resp. situations of relevance / observations. However, I'm not sure if I can help you with much of 'detailed explanations'; that is not down to me being unwilling, but more to the fact that I tend to not memorize happenings (e.g. who, where, when) accurately. I'm the scholarly intellectual type of person and tend to stuff my head with a lot of data information or rather philosophical concepts - therefore much of ordinary daily life happenings doesn't get "recorded" -if you understand what I mean. But I will try
As a general observation I can state (of course purely from a personal point of view, as I cannot speak for others), that I find that much of the ignorance towards Sanatan Dharma I encountered from Germans and British is based on disinterest. People seem to be perfectly satisfied with their limited (and false) views on specific subjects, for example believing that yoga means physical asanas with a bit of breathing exercises and maybe even a little bit of meditation mixed into it. Or -cringe!- believing that Tantra means "spiritual sex".
In addition, people -esp. in UK- are not outspoken about religion and are not inclined to ask questions or volunteer personal beliefs; very different attitude to what one hears from the US. (Even our evangelical Christians or Jehova's Witnesses are not even half as "sharing" as an active religious person from the US.)
That means I actually don't much get to talk with people about religion in real life, away from the computer.
For example if the [rare] occasion occurs where I state that I am Hindu (no one other than Hindus here knows the proper name Sanatan Dharma), I just get a polite and accepting but disinterested nod or 'ok' - no questions asked, no interest -and no sympathy- shown.
Last time this happened was a couple of weeks ago: my son is starting a new school in January, and I informed the headmaster when visiting the school, as my husband and I don't want the teachers to presume that we are Christians only because we are of Anglo-Saxon ethnic descent.
Or my mum -bless her- who thinks because she has been to India as a tourist a couple of times can lecture me on 'what Hindus believe'... I visited my parents only recently; as they have a Ganesh statue in their entrance, I remarked how lovely this is and how fitting to have this statue in the house entrance. To which she said: 'yes we got him from India, Ganesh is the typical 'beginners god'' -oh dear. But she said it so dismissive and 'end-of-story' like that I didn't get the chance of informing her in turn, so simply said 'Lord Ganesh amongst other things presides over thresholds of all kinds, so the house entrance is a good spot for this lovely wall-statue.'
I think during this recent visit she only realized that I am Hindu. But again, she just accepted it and asked me nothing. (And I can't stand it when people go on about their religion unasked, and will not engage in that practice myself.)
Another side to my experience here in the UK is that we used to live in an army community which was made up of a majority of Nepalese families (Gurkhas). The experience was that both sides -British and Nepalese- stick very much to themselves. The Nepalese community closing themselves off to non-Nepalese, and the British families stay distant (and bewildered at their being so 'different').
I say with a little pride, that I became acquainted with a Nepalese neighbour whose daughter was a nursery friend of my son at the time. I was invited to her house a couple of times and was from then on accepted by the Nepalese neighbourhood.
Alas I was not Hindu at the time, however already devotee to Devi and we had very good conversations, in which I learned a lot. Sadly, they moved away only very shortly after.
Hope that helps. If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them from my perspective if I can.
Best wishes,
Padma
Aum Sri Matre Namah
Maha Lakshmi Namaha
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