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Hinduism Conference to Be Held in Michigan

By James Prichard/AP

Janet Poole was raised as a Protestant and considers herself a Christian. Recently, however, the 35-year-old has found herself heading East on a spiritual journey.

A few months ago, Poole, an administrative assistant from Naples, Fla., started exploring Hinduism, the world’s third-largest religion behind Christianity and Islam, and the dominant faith in India and Nepal.

“I’m just discovering all about it, and it’s fascinating what I’m learning,” she says.

Poole hopes to find out even more about Hinduism, which its followers consider to be less a religion and more a way of life, during a three-day conference, June 22-24, at the Vivekananda Monastery and Retreat.

The event, “Vedanta in the Third Millennium,” is expected to attract about 500 people to Ganges, a village in southwestern Michigan about 90 miles from Chicago. Ganges was chosen as the monastery’s site in the late 1960s because it shares its name with India’s holy river.

“The idea of doing this conference is to make the people aware of their spiritual identity,” says Swami Chidananda, the leader of the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago, which operates the monastery and is organizing the conference. “Once they become aware of their spiritual identity, they’ll be really happy and peaceful in this life because people are always facing so many challenges.”

He says the event will focus on personal spiritual instruction and Vedanta, the philosophical foundation of Hinduism that essentially says all religions are one, all humans are potentially divine, and the aim of life is to realize that divinity through selfless work and devotion to God.

There are an estimated 813 million Hindus worldwide, including about 1 million in the United States, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia.

The conference will feature discussions, devotional music, cultural events,and periods of worship and meditation.

It should be one of the largest gatherings of swamis in U.S. history, says Frank Parlato, a Vedanta scholar and journalist who lives near Buffalo, N.Y.

Chidananda is one of 14 North American swamis, a Hindu monk or spiritual teacher of the highest standing, and is scheduled to take part at the Ganges conference. Thirteen swamis from around the world attended a 1987 conference held at the monastery.

“The Hindus feel ... that the presence of these people is enough to transform them,” Parlato says.

He says many people find Hinduism appealing because it’s “not a proselytizing religion. It’s probably the only religion that has said it’s never going outside its boundaries to convert. There’s no belief in its superiority. The Hindu always accepts other religions as true.”

The Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago gets its name from Swami Vivekananda, an Asian Indian who founded an order that now has 12 ashrams in the United States and one in Canada. He taught that Vedanta’s principles, which are based on ancient Hindu scripture, could just as easily be applied to modern life.

He introduced Hinduism to this country in 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religion. The landmark event, held in conjunction with the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, was the first time East met West religiously in a formal setting.

“There are lots of different [Hindu] sects and philosophies other than Vedanta,” says Mithilesh Mishra, a Hindi professor at the University of Chicago who plans to attend the conference. “But what has happened is that in modern times, especially in the context of the very scientific questioning of everything, including religion and spirituality, Vedanta seems to be the only one that kind of satisfies people’s intellectual quests.”

Swami Varadananda, one of a growing number of U.S.-born Hindu monks, agrees.

“That’s the main thing, I think, that people get a sense of just being inspired by it, sort of uplifted,” he says.

Shyam Bhatia, a Vedanta scholar and professor of international economics at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Ind., says the new millennium marks a “new spiritual age” for Vedanta, and the Ganges event should help attendees of all faiths feel more spiritual.

“That way, a Christian will become a better Christian, a Hindu will become a better Hindu, and a Buddhist will become a better Buddhist.”