Which Is It?

You may have noticed that I talk about how long I’ve been a Hindu in different ways at different times.

Was I born Hindu or did I convert?

As with many things, it depends a lot on how you look at it and so I shift how I talk about it depending on context.

I like to use the word “convert” because it expresses the unique challenges that come up for people who have cultural or racial barriers to the religion they are practicing. It’s true, of course, that most Hindu sects don’t have a conversion rituals (some do, however). But to say that you don’t need to convert to be a Hindu sometimes means leaving new Hindus or people trying to practice Hinduism without any guidance on how to do it. (Assuming that you are meaning to be welcoming when you say that conversion is not necessary).

For myself, I am an unusual in-between. Though as more and more people in the west come to Hinduism and then raise children, there will be more people like me who are not easy to classify.

I was raised Hindu by non-Hindu parents.

How does that happen? My parents found the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta and embraced it. It was everything that they believed and they’ve been dedicated to it for nearly forty years now. When I was growing up we didn’t call it Hindu. I was told that it was the Universal Truth we were practicing.

Yet here are some details for you…

My mother read stories from a children’s translation of The Mahabharata to me before I was old enough to read
For lullabies she sang Vedic prayers
We had the Sanskrit alphabet hung on our dining room wall
I had a comic book about the birth of Krishna
I was taught Sanskrit calligraphy as a child
I was initiated into Transcendental Meditation and given an Sanskrit mantra when I was 13
Before and after every meal our grace was said in Sanskrit: Om Paramatmane Namah (I bow to the Supreme Self)
When my father’s cat died when I was three my parents told me that he would be reincarnated. They said the same when my Grandfather died.
Every week I was read passages from The Gita and the Upanishads to discuss

My world was full of Hinduness from a very young age, but I didn’t know that’s what it was. I thought it was just a normal western life.

What we didn’t do when I was a kid was:

go to temple
observe holidays
perform puja or other rituals

So when I say that I’ve been a Hindu for ten years, I’m talking about the moment I realized that what I had been practicing and believing all my life was Hinduism. I’ve never gone through any kind of conversion rituals. I simply woke up to the fact that I was already a Hindu and I always had been.

From there I began this journey of trying to understand where the line between religion and culture is. It’s not a straight forward distinction! There are many who complain when Hindu philosophy is separated from its origin and purged of any reference to it being Hindu, but at the same time if you practice the philosophy with the Hindu connection intact then you’re accused of misappropriating the culture. I’m not interested in a Hinduism that has been white-washed to suit westerners. The Truth, I believe, is in authentic Hinduism.

What will those who want to keep white people out of Hinduism do with people like me? With my children who will be even more definitely born Hindu?

Look, I understand the concern. I don’t want to take over, I don’t want to claim to be the end all authority on Hinduism (Ha! As if!). I’m just a person living a Hindu life and I don’t think I’m worse or better than another Hindu. The only authority I will ever claim is that I know what it’s like to be an outsider to your religion, to practice a religion where you don’t look like what you’re expected to look like. That’s my lived experience.

I ran across a couple of blog posts talking about how you can’t convert to Hinduism, one quoting the other. From Women of Color, In Solidarity:

As many of you know, many people who are NOT Desi/Indian/South Asian people claim to have converted to Hinduism when it is not something you convert to, it is a religion you are born into and is not open to foreigners. To “convert” to Hinduism as many have claimed, is cultural appropriation and is stealing from a deep and rich culture that is not yours.

From Jaisiyaram (interesting that their cover photo has a white woman in it. I suppose she must not claim to be Hindu):

To be very straight and clear with my words, it is actually not possible to convert to Hinduism. There is no scripture that describes any procedure, method or ritual how you could convert. It is not like in other religions in which you have to get baptized or in which you have to proof that you know a certain part of the scriptures of that religion. There is simply no way to convert. Instead you can find verses that tell you that a Hindu is only a person who is born a Hindu.

People who say ‘I converted to Hinduism’ thus may have not understood that part of the scriptures or they really want to be Hindus so much that they ignored it. I think that is a bad start into your new religion! Look, if you really want to believe in this religion, you should follow it properly and first of all find out whether you can be a member of that club. If that religion tells you that you cannot, shouldn’t you follow its rules and leave it?

I have to say that not having a scripture that describes a ritual for conversion is not really an argument against it. Not having a baptism ritual doesn’t mean that you can’t practice the religion. So I find that argument pretty empty.

The one about scripture actually saying you have to be born Hindu to be Hindu is more compelling. I would like to know what verses these are. I have studied, read, and discussed many Hindu scriptures in the course of my life, but I have not finished every one as of yet. So if you know what verses are being referred to there, I’d appreciate it if you let me know! I can find no source on the site itself.

As I’ve said before the reason why I can’t “just leave it” is that I am not willing to waste an entire valuable human life not progressing towards Moksha just because I was born the wrong color.

I know there are those who say I’m just another racist white person who thinks everything is open to her and she can do whatever she wants. I’m sorry for those who feel that way. But my Guru is the one whose opinion matters the most to me and he allows me to be his disciple.