“Lessons I have learned as a Hindu” – Faith Matters published in azCentral

FAITH MATTERS

Lessons I have learned as a Hindu

Krishna Raman

Special to The Republic

Growing up in India for the first twenty years of my life, I saw how my parents treated everyone they met, a friend or a stranger. They would start up a conversation with them and show such interest in their life stories, and along the way, they also talked about their own lives. Since we lived in a big city, we would constantly have distant relatives and their friends come to stay with us while they looked for a job and got settled. My parents were not wealthy by any standards, but they were willing to share whatever they had to help the other person. My sister and I now talk about how they could afford to feed all the extra people who stayed with us for a while!

This lesson to respect people and help them if needed to the best of one’s ability has always stayed with me. I have been taught to be generous and help people in need, and I have noticed that a lot of my family do the same thing. Whether I contribute to a favorite charity or help someone in any other way, I believe I was taught this by my parents’ example as well as my religion, Hinduism.

As a student of Vedanta, or Hindu philosophy, I have learned that all living beings are interconnected, and the consciousness in me is the same in every person and all living things, including animals and plants. When you fold your palms together and say “namaste,” you are acknowledging that fact. My spiritual guru says that this is the goal of human existence — to realize with every fiber of your being that we are all one and should be treated with love and dignity.

Compassion, or Karuna in Sanskrit, is a very important part of rising above one’s own interests and doing what is good for those around you. It is not just an emotional response to what you see around you, but a deep conviction that you need to help the other person. This is the moral law that governs individual conduct and motivates individuals to fulfill their responsibilities with empathy and understanding. It plays a large part in conflict resolution by allowing one to see beyond their own grievances and recognize the humanity in others. Empathy helps in understanding others’ perspectives, and kindness can soften rigid stances and open paths for dialogue.

As I go through this stage in my life, I find that being kind to people and sometimes helping them by just listening to them or helping them with something else gives me a sense of satisfaction and joy that few other things bring. The lessons my parents taught me, reinforced by the values I have learned from Hinduism in how to treat others, have been valuable lessons indeed.

Krishna Raman is a Hindu Faith Representative at the Arizona Interfaith Movement Council .