Priya Vaishnava Friends.

 

Pranams.

 

Just wanted to share some details with you about the Interfaith Conference that took place at the Islamic Center (mosque) here. 

 

8 leading representatives from 8 different spiritual paths were present that night and I represented “Hinduism”.

 

When I was called to the podium to speak, I first introduced myself as the grand-daughter of a Turkish Muslim and told the story of how when my maternal grandfather first came to the USA some 100 years ago, he was required at the border to anglicize his name.

 

At the time the United States was bringing over young Turkish men to work the coal mines in Kentucky.  Needless to say, there were no mosques at the time and I don’t know if my grandfather was a strict follower of Islam or not, but at least he got to keep his native tongue alive via communication with the other young Turks in the coal mines.

 

I made the point to thank the Muslims present there for building a mosque where modern day muslims can come and worship according to their spiritual culture and that I am so happy to see that, if my grandfather were alive today, he would have literally several hundreds, if not thousands of beautiful American mosques and Islamic communities to choose from.

 

I then went on to say that even though I am there representing “Hinduism”, that there really is no such thing.  The word Hinduism is an umbrella under which all the ancient religions of South Asia find a place to stand.  Although most, if not all, of these South Asian religions share some common themes, such as the eternality of the soul, at the same time they all have their differences or specialaties as well.  One such South Asian religion is Gaudiya Vaishnavism, born in West Bengal.

 

I then expressed my appreciation for how well the Quran has developed the themes of nama and guna (names and attributes of Allah).  I drew parrallels between that and our concept of nama-rupa-guna-lila.

 

I then drew parrallels between the concept of “islam”, which literallay means “submission”, and the concept of “sharanagati”.

 

The vibrational energy in the mosque that night was very high as everyone present there was not there to “convert” anyone to their way of life, nor to “debate”, nor do any of the lower level activities that have been so often associated with religions and their cults in the previous millenium. 

 

Everyone was there just to “share”.  It’s all about love, baby.

 

After all the representatives had their time at the podium, we all joined our Muslims sisters and brothers for their evening salat, namaz, to Allah, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, as is customary in Islamic culture. 

 

How awesome to see all these different religions participating in the love rituals of another, seemingly totally different religion.  It was very powerful.

 

Another factor that I took note of was that out of all the 8 religions present that night,

all representative speakers were women, with the only 2 male representatives being from Islam and Buddhism.

 

I think that also says something about the direction spirituality is taking in this new and dynamic millenium.

 

And oh yeah…. all the food was pure vegetarian.  My B’hai friend from Iran was expecting meat coz “muslims only eat meat” right?   Wrong.

 

Anyway, it is a great era for Vaishnavas to get out and about and not only lovingly SHARE  the incredibly mind-blowing concepts of Yugala-upasana and Braj-prem, but also to LEARN from other spiritual how to do so in a relaxed, open and humble way.

 

At the end of the evening the Imam of the mosque walked up to me, thanked me for speaking things that he never heard before, and invited me to join him in creating an interfaith network here.

 

Sri Radha Ho Akbar!!!

 

Tungbidya dasi