A meeting of the representatives of the Baha’I, Braham Kumaris, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim faiths was organised by the World Conference of Religions for Peace (NSW) at the Shalom College, University of NSW, Kensington, NSW. The topic for discussions was: “Reconciling with my faith being an Australian”. Mr Vijai Singhal attended the meeting on behalf of the Hindu community and presented his views on the topic, which are reproduced below:
Reconciling with my faith being an Australian
I am a proud Australian Hindu. I chose to come to Australia 30 years back as a migrant to live a better life for my family and myself. Why I chose Australia? Because it was a land of plenty, offering great opportunities for personal growth. It had abandoned its “White-only” policy and was ready to accept people of Asian origin to its shores and offer equal opportunities to all. I took my chance and I must say at the outset that I have not regretted it. I came here with very little material possessions, but with education, for which I am indebted to my parents and my country of birth, where education is valued and a will to work hard. It has paid off. After 30 years I look back with some sense of satisfaction. I have been able to give best education to my daughters, two of them are doctors. They are married and well settled and the third one, not doing badly either in the finance industry. I have just retired after 12 years service in the private sector and 18 years in the public sector.
By and large I have found the Australians as very friendly people. Mateship and fair go are part of strong social ethics. Australians are fun-loving people, who love sport. When I came here in November of 1974, I found the job within a couple of weeks. My boss took me to the Bank Manager and got my Bank account opened, a colleague helped me find a unit to rent. On my first Christmas in Australia, I was invited by another colleague to join him and his family for my first Christmas dinner with his parents-in-law. It was a very nice gesture. That friendship is still alive and we meet twice a year for lunch.
Australia is one of the best countries in the world. It has beautiful climate and now has a multicultural society in which people of some 200 different nationalities of origin live in relative harmony and peace. It provides equal opportunities to all. People are not discriminated on any grounds. They have freedom to practice their own faith. 30 years back there was no Hindu Temple. We used to hire a hall on various festivals and for prayer meetings. Then in 1980 we bought an old Church building and established the first Hindu Temple in Australia, in Sydney suburb of Auburn. Now there are a number of properly constructed temples in almost all the States in Australia. There are a number of beautiful Temple buildings in Sydney itself. Not only people of Indian heritage visit these temples but a sizeable number of people of other European heritage also visit them regularly to appreciate the beautiful architecture of these temples, to enjoy the serene surroundings and to enjoy Indian food. We celebrate major festivals by organising Fairs. Deepavali, the festival of lights is one of the most widely celebrated festivals of Hindus.
The Hindu Council has been organising the big fair in Sydney every year for the past 5-6 years, over 20,000 people attend the fair. Deepavali has also been celebrated in the federal as well as in the State Parliament House of NSW.
So as an Australian Hindu, I am proud to be an Australian, because it has given me all the opportunities and freedom that I need and at the same time I am proud to be a Hindu, because it is the oldest and most tolerant of all religions. As Hindus we are taught to respect all religions. We bow down to the prophets of all religions. Our Scriptures tell us: Ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.
We believe in pluralism, that’s why we have so many Gods. In fact, our scriptures tell us that God resides in every one of us. Every one of us is potentially divine and not a sinner. Our aim in life is to realise that divinity within. Once we are able to do that we become Godlike. We overcome our weaknesses. We commit sins only because of our ignorance of our true nature. Hindus don’t believe in proselytization, because it is against the spirit of multi-faith, and multi-culturism. It does not show respect to other religions. We feel very strongly that non-proselytization is the only way to have peace amongst the followers of various different religions.
I would like to end my talk with a universal prayer from our Scriptures:
Aum sarve bhavantu sukhinah. Sarve santu niramayah.
Sarve bhadhrani pashyantu. Maa kaschid dukh bhaagbhave.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy.
May all beings experience prosperity. May none in the world suffer
Om Shanti! Shanti! Shanti. Om Peace, Peace, Peace. |
