Ramakrishna and World Religion

---

Christine looked at me one day and expressed that she really felt we were in a world's religions class during this trip to India. And it is so true. I never knew that going to India would involve so much learning not only about the many aspects of Hinduism, but also about Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism.

Education started immediately with Hinduism. As we arrived in Delhi, we dodged various cows in the road in order to reach our hotel room. I had always heard about this, but did not know it was such a reality! We discovered later that there are various reasons for the sacred state of the cow in India, including the fact that Lord Krishna's (one of the deities in Hinduism) had a cow. The education of Hinduism continued as we toured several temples for Krishna, including seeing the very stone where he was born. The temples were all incredible and people were so flattered that we came to visit them.

Education continued with Islam. We toured several mosques, including one of the biggest in the world, where over 30,000 people come to pray. In addition to this formal introduction, however, was the informal Muslim traditions we saw in various cities. People were of course dressed as Muslims. There was also a huge separation between men and women at several occasions.

For Buddhism, I had originally planned on going to Bodha Gaya, the place where Buddha was enlightened. A new tree exists there today; the original one having been poisoned by Ashoka's wife (one of the great emperor's of India). Unfortunately, a change in plans meant this part of the trip would be dropped and I ended up staying extra time in Kolkata. But this will be for next time!

However, in Kolkata, I was able to visit the temple of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna could be considered a form of Hinduism. He was a man from the 1800s who believed in the unity of all religions. He stated that God has made himself available to many people in many different time periods in many different culturally appropriate ways. Jesus, Mohammad, Krishna, and Buddha are all prophets he gave reference to. He focused not on how the religions were different, but the universal concepts in all of them. And he stated that it was really a matter of living to these core values. In our turbulent world with "fanatics" (they use this word), we could really learn a lot from a overencompassing philosophy such as this one.

---

Photos

Hindu Temple
We saw this temple lit up at night. It was really cool.

Catholic Church in Goa
For Christine's Mass

Ramakrishna
Notice all the various religious symbols