Collegiate Times

If any examination of American religions writ large (or Virginia Tech's religions writ small) it would be easy, though a serious oversight, to look over the Eastern traditions that inform the worldviews of many international students.

One of the largest of these student groups, according to the Cranwell International Center, comes from India.

Hinduism is the predominant faith of the Indian subcontinent, though defining what being a Hindu actually means can be difficult given the heterogeneous nature of the traditions informing the faith.

"Religions are made by people, people are not made by religions," electrical engineering graduate student Manasa Valipa said.

This attitude has led to a tolerant inclination toward others' customs and beliefs within the Hindu tradition and Indian society.

"Hinduism is not dependent on a Church or a way of thinking - there's no Hindu Pope," mechanical engineering graduate student Naresh K.C. Selvarasu said. "It is a personal religion; being a personal religion, how you want to practice it depends on you."

That lack of orthodoxy informs Hindus' cosmopolitan and pluralist attitudes, Selvarasu said.

"I don't know how to translate it, but there's an old Sanskrit saying, 'There are multiple ways to the same place' - that's what all religions are," Selvarasu said.

Valipa explains that there are millions of gods in Hindu mythology, though none has supremacy over another.

"We accept every religion, every creed - that's the basis of having that many gods in India, whatever sects came up, they were accepted," Selvarasu said.

"(Hinduism) says you should follow a righteous path, not harm another person, the same thing as any other religion," Valipa said.

"As such there's nothing different about being a practicing Hindu than being a practicing Jew or Christian," Selvarasu said.

The central tenets such as karma, dharma and samsara in Hindu belief as well as its scriptures such as the Vedas and Upanishads are fairly broad and open to interpretation, according to one Hindu student.

"It's more related to thinking," mining and mineral engineering graduate student Nikhil Gupta said.

"All these mythological stories teach something - at least about how to live your life."

"Another way of putting it is any act you do, there's no way of classifying it as good or bad, it's just an act," Selvarasu said.

"There's actually a very famous saying from the Bhagavad-Gita that you never expect the consequences of an action," Valipa said. "You don't

anticipate what's actually going to come from an act; you can't

know it and you just do what you need to."

Karma and destiny are very important to Hindus and inform their attitudes about life.

"Destiny is just a way of dealing with what happens and being happy despite it," Valipa said. "It's a way of feeling that, at the end of the day, whatever happens is for the good."

"Karma is more than just the result of your actions; it is the cause and the result as well as what's happening right now," Selvarasu said. "What you're doing right now is a

result of the past, what you're doing right now will influence the future."

This acceptance demands a kind of passivity, Selvarasu said.

"You don't fret over bad results and you shouldn't rejoice over good results," Selvarasu said.

Indian cultural institutions that support an inclusive attitude and tolerance toward others' outlooks also inform that attitude.

"It's more than Hinduism; it's also about being an Indian, being from a nation," Valipa said.

Selvarasu said this was a necessary condition for getting along in Indian society.

"It's really a very classical debate about whether the country should be a melting pot or a salad bowl," Selvarasu said. "India has always been a salad bowl."

"If you are open to Indian culture, we welcome you with open arms," Valipa said. "We take you as you come, we don't want you to change but to be who you are."

Sometimes this pluralism can be difficult to communicate to outsiders.

"When my flatmates ask me, 'How do you do this, how is a wedding performed in India or how is this script?' I don't have a definite answer because there are so many different kinds of scripts and so many different

kinds of weddings based on cultures and traditions you follow," industrial and systems engineering graduate student Navaneeta Dorbala said.

This viewpoint has helped these recent American arrivals to make the sometimes-difficult transition as a minority in a very foreign land.

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