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Hinduism's influence on the United States

Hinduism's influence on the United States

Author: J. Michael Parker, Express-News Religion Writer
Publication: MySanAntonio.com
Date: May 13, 2006
URL: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/stories/MYSA051306.01R.Hinduism.27b8145.html

Hinduism has more influence in American culture than its relatively small membership would suggest, said an American-born swami who visited San Antonio's Hindu temple last week.

"It's more widespread than you'd think," said Satguru Bodinatha Veylanswami, 63, publisher of Hinduism Today magazine and head of 20 monks at a monastery on Kauai, Hawaii.

"Martin Luther King's strategy of nonviolence is a good example of how Hindu principles have been used effectively in the West. King visited some of Mahatma Gandhi's followers in India to understand it better," the swami said.

"Since Sept. 11, there's been broader interest in teaching nonviolence," Veylanswami said. "We have a wonderful opportunity to share our belief in the importance of raising children with prejudice-free consciences."

Hinduism also influenced the vegetarian movement, yoga meditation, and alternative medical treatments that have become popular in the United States. An estimated 25 percent of Americans believe in reincarnation, he said.

Veylanswami, a Berkeley, Calif., native, spoke here last week at ceremonies to reconsecrate several temple statues. The ceremonies are conducted every 12 years as a way of "recharging" statues with spiritual energy, the swami said.

The Hindu American Foundation estimates that the foreign-born Hindu population in the United States has grown from 387,000 in 1980 to nearly 2 million.

About 1 million Hindus have been born in the United States to immigrant Hindu parents, Veylanswami said.

He said the mass migration of Hindu teachers to the United States since the 1960s has fueled American awareness of Hinduism, especially with pop stars such as the Beatles' George Harrison studying the religion.

Few Americans have converted from other religions to Hinduism, he said, but most Hindus who marry in the United States marry non-Hindus. Typically, couples meet in universities while studying for similar careers, he said.

Intermarriage is a new phenomenon for Indian-born Hindus, Veylanswami said. Temple leaders need to develop programs offering hospitality to non-Hindu spouses and to enable them to learn about their spouses' faith.

San Antonio's nearly 4,000 Hindus are Indian-born doctors, scientists, engineers and business people. Their children mostly were born here. None is believed to have a non-Hindu spouse, said Rao Pemmeraju, a longtime San Antonio Hindu leader.

But even if both spouses are Hindus, they face another challenge that's not unlike what Americans of other religions face: passing on their religious faith to their children in a consumer- and entertainment-oriented society.

"It's easy for youth to see religion as old-fashioned and not really necessary. They often prefer to stay home and play computer games than worship at the temple," the swami said.

The best antidote, he said, is for parents to establish a family tradition of daily worship at home, even if it's only for 10 minutes each morning - a message he reinforced to the local congregation last weekend.

Most Hindu families have home shrines where they can pray together.

"If they do that regularly, it's more natural for them to worship in the temple each week," the swami said.

That's been the experience of Pemmeraju, a biomedical research scientist, and his wife, Rani. They've lived in San Antonio since 1958 and raised three children here. Two are medical doctors in Dallas and the other, Uma Pemmeraju, is a Fox News Channel anchor in New York.

"For a long time, we were the only Hindu family in the city. There was no temple here when our children were growing up. We opened our temple in 1991," Rao Pemmeraju said.

"We always would sit together and pray at our shrine. Rani always made vegetarian lunches for them. Their classmates at school would laugh, but they didn't mind."

Today, he said, they're married and have families of their own.

"They know what a Hindu way of life is," Pemmeraju said, "and they're passing on to their children what they learned from us."

jparker@express-news.net


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