Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 09:03:19 -0500
From: Shyamal Gupta <shyamal-AT-pobox.com>
Subject: Re: holy places - fact sheet from India


At 11:04 PM 3/3/2002, Colin Kenworthy wrote:
>Guhathakurta wrote that in India , a muslim holy place is open to all
>religions, so is a Christian and a Sikh holy place. However, a non-hindu
>is not allowed entry into Hindu  temples.
>
>I am an Australian Catholic. When I was India, a few years ago, I was
>taken by Brahmin friends to several Hindu temples, where I was made to
>feel very welcome; and where I was encouraged to make offerings in
>honour of the gods.

Glad someone else other than self (being a so-called Hindu) shared this 
experience.

I've lived most of my life in India, and have travelled extensively, but 
haven't had the experience Mr. Guha Thakurta and Mr. Tripathy talks about. 
I have, certainly, come across an occasional temple (including a couple of 
big ones) where the restrictions mentioned exist, but these have been very 
rare.

Personally, I've even had the experience (in a temple in a tiny village in 
Orissa) of my presence being frowned upon because I'm a Bengali and not an 
Oriya !

Again, I have had to sneak into a couple of mosques, with help from Muslim 
friends because they told me that the mullas wouldn't like Hindus there. I 
must say that this was more because of the personal inclinations of the 
mullas (or perhaps the fears of my Muslim friends) then rather than because 
of any tradition or religious rule.

For ten years (the '50's and '60's) I have studied in a large school in 
India run by Jesuits, and my recall is that non-Christians were not allowed 
to enter the chapel during Mass. I didn't feel negatively about this rule, 
and it hadn't even been important to me. But years later when I had worked 
closely with professional colleagues who are Jesuits and other Catholic 
priests, and had also worked as consultant with the Church, I remember my 
mental surprise at the recall of this restriction in my school, and the 
recognition that this was definitely an exception rather than the rule.

The point I'm trying to make is that in India (and, I suspect, anywhere 
else in the world), where there is any restriction or discrimination on 
entry in places of worship, it is more a localised social or individualised 
phenomenon than a religious one. The vast, vast majority of places of 
worship are quite open to all faiths.

>I was conscious of the holiness of these places. One felt that these were 
>places where men and women had been able to go beyond there experience of 
>temporal reality.
>
>to be both in and out of time
>
>to be both still and moving
>
>to be flesh and fleshless

Thanks for sharing this.


Cheers.


Shyamal Gupta
New York, USA.



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