Hey we're USC, and you're probably wondering why I'm back in college.
Is it because I'm 29 and still don't have a degree?
no it's because we're meeting Pavitra today
who is, oh, let's see...Pre-Med,
she plays the piano, she sings, she dances, she's a screenwriter,
a journalist, and probably an astronaut.
But she is also a Hindu. So we're going to learn about Hinduism
and see if I can get some good karma with the college crowd.
I should've brought beer.
Nice to meet you, I'm Zach.
Nice to meet you too.
Were you studying all day,
or is it finals time? What's going on now?
I had a couple of presentations.
A couple presentations?
I mean, some were more fun than others, but...
Thanks for finding the time...
I guess, let's go learn about Hinduism, and everything that you do.
Okay.
What year of college are you in right now?
I'm actually wrapping up my undergraduate and my graduate degrees.
I was a progressive degree student,
so, in a week or two weeks I'll be walking and receiving both
my bachelor's in psychology and my master's in global medicine.
How did you manage to get two degrees so early?
Lots of classes.
What was your spiritual life like growing up? What were the values your parents taught?
Two of the the biggest values my parents taught me are two of the most
central ones in Hinduism,
Karma and Dharma. Karma is basically what you put into the universe
will come back to you. It's very much a personal connection with the universe.
What's Dharma? Is it like that "Dharma & Greg" show 'cause I was not a fan of that.
Dharma is really a person's
calling in life, or their duty, is really what Dharma refers to in a lot of ways.
How does one practice hinduism?
and how do you worship, and what do you worship?
I mean I like to say there are as many different ways of practicing Hinduism
as there are Hindus in the world. The way I practice Hinduism is very different
from the way my friends practice Hinduism,
which is different from the way my parents practice Hinduism.
Let's just focus on you and your parents.
How do you practice Hinduism differently than your parents did?
Well I grew up here.
Since culture is such a big part of Hinduism, since it's such a personal religion,
I think that really influences the way in which I see the world
I see karma and dharma as the most important things as opposed to all the stories,
but I also really really really enjoy the stories about Hinduism.
One other things that I've always been unclear on is
what is actually cultural in Indian culture versus
what is Hindu culture.
It's hard to take this this spiritual entity that's been
growing alongside culture in India. Hinduism is of of the oldest religions in the world
and box it up into this thing that we like to call religion. There's no one person
that we know of
that founded Hinduism. We can't trace it back.
It wasn't even called Hinduism for the longest time. Hindu is actually a Persian word
which
was used to denote people of India and so Indianism and Hinduism have been
so intricately put together that I can't tell you exactly where the line is.
I can tell you that parts of my Indian heritage definitely contribute to the
way I practice Hinduism.
Are there rituals and things like that
that you practice?
Yes, we have aartis and pujas, which are kind of offerings to the gods.
The gods are - I could tell you a little more about them...
Yeah I don't - how many gods are there?
So there are millions and millions of gods in my understanding.
but they're all manifestations of what we, at least,
in my understanding of Hinduism they're all manifestations of Brahman, which is
kind of a universal spirit. I don't know if I would
put the word god onto that because it has no form, it has no shape. There's a bit
a Brahman in every single one of us according to Hinduism.
Can we talk about your particular sect of Hinduism and how it differs from others?
So the sect of Hinduism that I'm most familiar with
is Shaivism, which is basically the worship of the Lord Shiva
who is the god of destruction.
Why would you worship the destroyer?
Because destruction is a normal part of life. Things come to being. Things die out.
How do you worship him? Do you break a lot of things?
Like throwing dishes and stuff or is it -
It's not so much destroying ourselves, it's just -
yeah asking for safety and a clear path ahead.
We have symbols, like I in my own,
you know, cultural beliefs believe that the bindi or the
dot on the forehead as many people would call it
is a symbol of Shiva's third eye or the eye of destruction, the eye of power.
Why do people wear the bindi
and why don't you have one?
I do have one. It's in my purse.
I'll be wearing it to the aarti which is happening right after this.
Is that what we're going to? Where are we going to next?
We're going to an aarti, which is
kind of an offering to the gods, or to a god. In our case we use ganesha
because ganesha is the destroyer of obstacles and he's a very
universal symbol of Hinduism. He's the elephant-headed god
and so will be up basically offering our prayers to him and asking for his
blessings,
in the sense that we really wanna have a clear path ahead.
What is the actual group that we're meeting with?
This group is called the Hindu Student Organization and it is
the first and the primary Hindu group on
USC's campus. And so we tried - we're very non-denominational. We don't, you know,
really harp on sect. I don't think you can much when you're Hindu simply
because there are so many different ways
of practice. But we get together every week and we do have some
discussion and aarti
or an offering, just to, you know, get together and have a space to express our
spirituality and so that's really our role.
So can anybody come?
It doesn't matter what religious background you're from.
In Hinduism there are many paths, one truth. And the way you find it
is up to you.
For us, the light is the main source of everything.
Light is god.
But then the idea is that we light a lamp
with the wick and oil
so the oil is the one which helps the
light to grow, you know? But the idea is that the reason why you pair the lamp
with the wick is because you can transfer it.
So it kind of symbolizes that if I share what I know to
someone, then I'm enlightening the other person so we are transferring the light.
So I'm getting some of the wick today. Exactly.
You are getting the light.
So typically we'll go into some sort of discussion after this
whether it's something that one of us read in a newspaper that we think
relates to religion or spirituality or Hinduism specifically.
But I think today,
since we have you here, if there's any questions that you have or if you
wanna talk more about your interest in religion.
One of the things that I had a
deep question about what's the idea of karma.
You know there are a lot of people who are not in a good place and if I was
looking at them
thinking, "Oh, in the last life they must have done something to deserve
that", I don't know how that would affect things like compassion and
empathy and if it does.
The entire idea behind this philosophy is that we still do as much good as possible
but then how much they get is based on that carbon.
When they're born, the way I see this, that they're born with a clean slate
but what happened before determines how they're born. I can see how
that could be a problem in the sense that someone says, "Oh you did bad
things in your last life and that's why you were born this way."
It makes more sense to help that person because it's not about what they did in
their last life it's about who they are in this life.
Was everyone in this group raised in a
religious household? Do you question your religion ever or
how do you deal with that?
I was raised in a pretty Hindu household however I went to Catholic high school
and my the city that I was raised in was predominantly Muslim.
I question the whole idea of karma and
why some people are born less fortunate than others and what that,
the implications of that in their current life.
How is it to be a Hindu
in America versus a Hindu in
India and what have you noticed that's
different about about the cultures and how they view faith?
Only when you when you away from something you actually realize the value of it.
So when I was in India,
I used to explore very little of Hinduism. And a lot of stuff I learned
was after I came here. In India, say,
I go to a temple on a regular basis. No one would actually ask me what that means, you know?
So when someone asks me what that means,
now I have to explain to them what it is.
And as you get a flow of questions from different people about your faith,
you end up researching a lot more to actually understand what you're actually doing.
Can I ask-You don't have to actually answer if you don't want to, but,
where do you stand in terms of just like, core beliefs, whether it's
agnostic or spiritual?
That's a really good question. I think right now where I stand,
in terms of belief is that it's my job to
try and communicate views of other people
so that it makes those beliefs
of others more accessible. Because to me
religion is something that I
is too often in our society used to discriminate or separate
when it should be something that is
meant to unify and
start a discussion. So
hopefully I can be catalyst to
start that discussion.
I think not many people go as far as you are, and care enough to
really address topics like this.
You guys have been so wonderful. It's been really
a great evening to get all those different perspectives
and I really appreciate it.
We loved having you here, too.
So what finals does everybody have? Anybody got a final tomorrow?
I had a final yesterday.
Really?
You gotta get out of here then! What are you doing here?
Well that was a fun evening. And Pavitra's great because
you know she's somebody that's making the most of her life even though she's
getting another one.
It's been a really great night with a bunch of
really thoughtful youngins. And I would hang out
with all of them, if it didn't make me feel so weird
to be hanging out with twenty-year-olds. Can't do that anymore and
not be a weirdo.
It's like Matthew McConaughey in "Dazed and Confused,"
except I'm wearing a shirt.
SoulPancake. Subscribe.