Indian religious mix: Did you know...

...that the Dravidan culture which formed the contemporary Tamil society, is one of the oldest on Earth? The religious traditions are among the most diverse known to humans now, with over 2000 years of developments, change, amalgamation with many other large religions of the world: there is Christianity in India, brought about not only by European merchants and pilgrims, but also by St. Thomas Apostle (the Doubting one), who is said to have reached India in his missions of preaching the Gospel. Thus, Christianity has been in India as long as in Europe, constituting a unique mix of christian doctrine and local traditions.

To better understand the multi-religious image of India, consider this:

"In 1888, Vivekananda left the monastery as a Parivrâjaka—the Hindu religious life of a wandering monk, "without fixed abode, without ties, independent and strangers wherever they go." His sole possessions were a kamandalu (water pot), staff, and his two favorite books—Bhagavad Gita and The Imitation of Christ."






Imitation of Christ is a deeply spiritual, ascetic advice on leading a pious life, renouncing the worldy matters and centering one's existence on Jesus only. Now, you may ask: but why would a Hindu mystic read and adhere to catholic teaching? Surely there must be major doctrinal differences, inner contradictions and inconsistencies compared to Bhadgavadgita, a core Hindu sacred text! But it didn't seem to matter that much to Vivekananada. In fact, Hinduism, with its plethora of branches, subgroups, streams and distinct groups emerging over time, managed to accommodate nearly every other religious belief. 


Vivekananada himself left a message to the world of the West: "I do not come", said Swamiji on one occasion in America, "to convert you to a new belief. I want you to keep your own belief; I want to make the Methodist a better Methodist; the Presbyterian a better Presbyterian; theUnitarian a better Unitarian. I want to teach you to live the truth, to reveal the light within your own soul."


This is the spiritual realm we will enter: colourful, diverse as the world itself, old and new alike, a mirror to everything that human has ever believed in. We will explore it, describe and come back - to tell you the fascinating story and cast a fresh view on how God and belief is perceived, practised and experienced. Stay with us!

Expedition aims

What will we actually do? We're targeting 3 different areas: large city of Chennai (former Madras), rural areas between Thanjavur and Madurai and finally, the great pilgrimage site of Rameswaran - during Krishna Janmastami, one of the biggest holiday in hinduism!

(Krishna Janmastami: the birthday of Krishna)

What are we going to do there? We want to discover and bring back a record of the religiosity of Hindu people and find how much it has changed over the last 20 years.

How? We want to interview people in different setting to obtain current data and elicit general approach to religion in XXI century, fast-developing India. We will compare it with historic data from the temples and earlier studies to get a benchmark values from two decades ago.

And something extra: we will try to find and interview a true Sanyasi, one who would renounce the world and set off for the spiritual journey at the end of his life, to finally achieve enlightment and liberation. Even thinking about the fact that such people still exits is mind boggling for us, Westerners, so used to life abundant in material possessions. How inspiring would it be to actually meet and talk to him or her!

Sanyasi: old photo (from Wikipedia)

Sanyasi: modern example (by calamur)

Kick-off

We've started now. We've got the team, we're all determined and inspired. There's a lot of work to be done, we need to get the funding, organise the transport, book accommodation, get the vaccines for Hepatitis A and B, Rabies, Typhoid, Malaria (hopefully it is a rather low-risk region), research about hindu religion, train ourselves as medics, interviewers, expedition leaders - but we're just excited about all that!

What we get in exchange is the spiritual world of India, this realm of exotic mystery, opening before us, letting us into the culture and religion almost as old as we can possibly imagine: it's roots go back to Iron Age! It's a time span beyond imagination - we will touch a spiritual flow which has been there for more than 3000 years...

I can't wait to start the preparations - every step forward brings us closer to India itself!