Frankly, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this topic. It's typically only on the internet forums that I've seen people say that Hindus should have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. My experience in real life is different. I agree that Jesus is completely irrelevant to Hinduism, and we shouldn't start building temples or doing pujas of Jesus. But I know a decent number of Hindus that say that they have respect for Jesus as a man and that he was a great teacher. As for why there's this respect, I'm not exactly sure.
I'm guessing it's just because (in my experience) Hindus tend to be more open minded about learning about other religions, and truly believe everyone's just worshiping God in the way they know. Another reason might be because in India, parents find children's worldly education a priority over religious educations, leading to many of their kids being educated in Christian schools because the regular schools aren't that great. I'm assuming that since many of the people's experiences have been positive (though not all), they tend to respect Jesus although they don't worship him. That doesn't explain my dad though, who although he respects Jesus, he does not worship him, but he wasn't raised in a Christian school or Christian neighborhood, so I don't know. Many of the Hindus I know are universalist in the sense that they believe each religion is on its own path to the same God, although they don't necessary worship each other's deities. And it's not just something I've noticed among a certain subsection of Indians, I've noticed this among Gujaratis, Punjabis, Tamils, Telugus, Bengalis, etc. Having said that, these same people that respect other religions still dislike missionaries, proselytizers, and evangelicals.
When it comes to syncretists though, they are smaller in number though. However, a few people's parents have said how they would occasionally pray to God in churches, mosques, and other places of worship despite being Hindu, although they would not keep those deities in their actual altars. There are certain communities that are to some extent syncretists due to an accident of history. A few North Indians Hindus pray at Sufi dargahs, Goan and Malayali Hindus and Christians visiting each other's places of worship, Malayali Hindus and Christians celebrating Onam together, certain Rajput Hindus and Muslims intermarrying and praying at each other's places of worship, Khoja and Ismaili Muslims praying to Hindu deities, Hindus and Sikhs of Punjab worship at their temples and gurudwaras, Hindus and Buddhists of Nepal worship at each other's temples, Hindus and Jains of Gujarat pray at each other's temples, Hindus and Taoists of Singapore praying at each other's temples (although I imagine most people don't mind the last four examples because they're Eastern religions). However, I am noticing that there is somewhat of a trend for those Christian and Muslim Indian communities. to try to lean away from syncretism.
I know for Swaminarayan Hindus, those that were born in Hindu families (so the vast majority) respect other religions, but we aren't syncretists and we typically just stick to our own traditions. However in the stories that people in the Swaminarayan tradition are told, we are told about followers that come from Muslim, Christian, or Zoroastrian backgrounds. Swaminarayan sadhus never had a problem with people of those backgrounds syncretizing Hinduism and whatever religion they came from. In one of the lectures that my parents were listening, the sadhus were saying with pride how one of the Muslim devotees would pray their namaz 5 times a day, yet still worship at the Swaminarayan temple. I'm assuming in these cases, they wouldn't perceive Allah or Jesus as the vengeful, hell-happy God, but that Allah or Jesus was Swaminarayan and believe the Vishishtadvaita view of God. This happened because Muslims, Christians, and Zoroastrian devotees didn't really have a place in the Hindu caste system, so syncretism was the only option (which probably hurt Hinduism IMO).
To conclude my long incoherent rant, I don't know what I feel about Jesus, but I'll say that even though I like learning about other religions and looking for parallels between those religions, I don't syncretize religions in my practice because I don't find it necessary, and I feel that it would just become extremely confusing and a hassle in the long run. In response to some comment saying that universalists shouldn't call themselves Hindu, honestly if we took that approach, then that would just end up alienating a good chunk of born Hindus.
मैत्रावरुणिः;3433872 said:
Namaste,
Take a trip to Vamaj, Vadu, and nearby villages. The tribal peoples found in those villages are mostly matriarchal.
Tame kem cho? Majama?
M.V.
Thanks, I should probably visit if I ever get the time off from university...
Majama chhu, bas oonghmathi uthyo.
