Pandit Roopnauth Sharma is the founder and spiritual leader of Ram Mandir, a Hindu temple, in Mississauga, Ont., and founder of Canada Hindu Heritage Centre. He addressed the General Assembly on Saturday, June 1, as an interfaith guest.
Good afternoon. It is indeed a privilege and a great opportunity for me to be with you today. I consider this history in the making because, to the best of my information, it’s the first time a Hindu is making a presentation to this gathering. That in itself tells us about the dynamics and the changes that are occurring the world where we live especially in the Canadian context.
I want to take a few moments to tell you a bit a bout myself. You’ve heard about my community involvement. Professionally I’m a management consultant who, until six years ago, worked with some of the major companies in information technology. But that is my profession. It pays the bills. But my passion is what I’m doing here today—to work with you and all the communities and my community, to make our lives better as we build relationships with the Divine in whatever form we perceive that Divinity to be.
The Ram Mandir itself is an institution that exists here in the GTA in Mississauga. It’s been around for about 30 years. It’s not just a temple; it’s an institution of learning. It is open 15 hours a day, seven days a week, and is active. At least 5,000 people go through the temple every week. You must understand that Hindus go to temple in the morning before they go to work, they may drop in at lunchtime, they will drip in in the evening. Every morning there are special prayers (or Mass, you may relate to that), and every evening there are special activities. The gatherings bring over 300 people on Tuesdays, and on Sundays 300 to 500. We prepare meals for everyone on those two days, which could mean in gross of about 1,000 people actually have meals in the temple. In a year, it could be 50,000 meals. This is not for the poor. This is just for the congregation.
So it is a living entity. And this common among most of the Hindu temples in Canada. As an organization, we are trying to adapt within the Canadian context of life and still maintain our traditions and culture. And I must say, we have no problems doing so. We have no complaints about that. We’re being very comfortable within the Canadian context.
I want to mention some basic principles of Hinduism that I want to share, because time does not permit me to get in depth and I’m sure another time we can do this. The key ordinance of this way of life—and note I say way of life, I did not say religion. It is a way of life. Hindus do not believe that there is a religion called Hinduism; that is a misnomer given to us by those who came to the land of Indus, then called it the Hindu Kush mountain range, and then called the inhabitants Hindus and their religion became Hinduism. It’s by no means written in any of our scriptures, but we have accepted it like many accept that the sun goes down and the sun comes up. But we all know it is you and I who are moving around.
As such, Hinduism today believes in some basic principles. And amongst them we call this the concept of brahmacharya—self-discipline—that he who disciplines the self and can control the self can then realize the God within him or her. Ahimsa, which was made very popular by Mahatmas Gandhi, is that non-violence in thought word and deed—not to think injury to another human being or any of God’s creation. Satya—the truth—to live the truth of God; that there is only one God and that we are all His children and we are here for a purpose. We have the ability to accomplish that purpose, and that journey is to return to God. These basic truths we believe in. Also, prem—universal love. Love all of God’s creation.
And definitely there’s one God. And more importantly, we do not see God as sitting in a throne in a place called Heaven. We see God as everything and everything is God. Thus Hindus will pray to a stone, a tree, a bird, a lake, or water or the land because we believe that God is everything and He did not create the world in six days and rest on the seventh, He is the world and he contains them all.
Those are the basic tenants of Hinduism in a nutshell. Now I could ask if you had any questions but we’d go on forever.
When I received the invitation and more information, it was pointed out to me that there was a great interest in our concerns and hopes as we continue to coexist in Canada. From the point of view of concerns like every newcomer to anything, we are concerned with acceptance. Will we be accepted?
There is quite a difference between accommodating someone and accepting them. If my daughter was to bring home a person of a different religious tradition, and says “Dad, he’s the guy.” “You really love him?” “Yes, Dad.” “Okay, I’ll accommodate him;. But I’ll tell you what: he’s not going to sit at the dinner table.”
We don’t want accommodations, we want acceptance. Acceptance of who we are. We want inclusion. That we are equal participants in the society we live in. And we want respect for our religion and our way of life. If you respect us, then do not attempt to convert us to what you believe in. Because that is the highest form of disrespect, when you tell me what I believe in is not good and only what you believe in is the best.
I must tell you I was brought up in the Caribbean. I was born in Guyana. And all the schools I went to were Christian denomination schools. I went to Mass every Wednesday. I went to communion also; but I was a Hindu. I was always amazed when someone stood in a pulpit and said to me that the only way to Heaven is Jesus Christ. And then I asked the question, when did Christianity come into reality? And he said 2,000 years ago. And I said, did anyone go to Heaven before that?
If we want to really coexist in harmony, we have to genuinely respect the beliefs of others and see that they too have a tradition that builds a relationship with God. We are concerned about that.
We are concerned more than that about the conflict between the religions of Islam and Christianity. They are constantly trying to convert the rest of the world to their way of thinking. In Egypt today—the Globe and Mail has a lengthy article about this conflict. In Nigeria, it’s an ongoing problem and thousands of people are being killed.
Recently in a dialogue I was a part of on television, the Christians posed that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. I was amazed to hear that. But then I found out it is the only religion that maintains statistics on this subject. The others never get the chance to present their story. So as such, who writes the news creates the culture and that’s the history.
So yes, this concerns us. We talk about justice and theology in the documentation. I’m curious about what is our interpretation of justice? And that is something we must all ponder form time to time. What is just for you may not be just for me. But are we looking for justice in the eyes of God or justice in the eyes of man?
As a Canadian, I’m proud to be a Canadian. And I’m proud to believe in all the constitutional laws of this country and to work within the law of this country to accommodate and to welcome others to this land. But at the same time, as a community, we need to be understood.
As a chaplain for the Hindu community, I was in many prisons. And one day, I was dressed not like this, but in Hindu priestly robes. I went to the prison doors and there after the screening the lady at the door said to me: “You must be fasting now.” And I said no. What she was referring to was the month of Ramadan. And she says: “Aren’t you a Muslim?” and I said no. So she told me then how much that we have to be ethnically sensitively trained to understand the diversities of the people who live in this country, and understand their traditions and way of life.
Also, we are sometimes perceived as being worshippers of monkeys and elephants. And I always wondered, if I were to say to a Christian person you are a cannibal because you eat the body of Christ and drink his blood, how would that be perceived? Obviously we need education to understand that we are not worshippers of monkeys and elephants. We worship God but we see Him in a different perspective.
To be viewed equally as God’s children, to live relations that will be of benefit to all faiths and enhance the Canadian way of life, to understand other faith groups, to share our beliefs and customs, to build harmony. You know, this word harmony has been used so often that I always look at an orchestra that has so many different players. You have the violin section. You have the wood section. You have the trombones and the drums. And then there’s one guy who is bandmaster and everybody is looking at him and everybody is on cue. And then when he raises his hands everybody does exactly what they have to do. Is that the harmony we’re talking about? Because my question is, who is the bandmaster? Is he a Christian? Is he of an Abrahamic faith? Is he of a native faith? Whose tunes are we dancing to? Whose rhythms are we singing to? Where is the harmony focused? Is it a harmony outside of that harmony? So we must think carefully when we think of harmony.
Also, as we can see in this harmony society, I believe that Canada is the epiphany of where there is harmony among communities. It is the only country in the world where people of multi-faith sit regularly on a monthly basis or a weekly basis and discuss not how they dislike each other, but how they can work together to make life better for each other. And we should be proud of that and we should all cheer for that because this can only happen in Canada.
Religion is at confrontation with secularism and we have to be wary of that. All are equal in the eyes of God. As we continue to live in Canada, I would like to share with you this statement of my hopes: that we must develop infrastructure that supports understanding and boldness to confront the habits and customs of the past. There was a time in the colonial world when people like me were seen as third-class or fourth-class human beings. And in return, when I would look on you as the colonial, the white man, for whom I am your servant and I am your slave. That is history. We must be bold enough to go beyond that and say today we are brothers and sisters living in a Canadian society, and we are Canadians under the canopy of heaven and under the name of one God.
I thank you for listening.
