Finding a Community

I’m all about planning ahead. I like to have a project to work on. My fiance says it’s in my astrological nature.

So as I plan my wedding, I’m also definitely thinking about the step that comes next: having kids. We really want to start a family right away.

As we start to prepare and think about bringing a child into our family, the biggest concern to me is having a Hindu community around us. I want other people in my children’s lives giving them Hindu ideas and beliefs. I don’t want it to be just from me. I’m afraid it would turn into “just that weird thing mom does.”

There are a bunch of Hindu temples clustered in one town, but it is a 45 minute drive away from us. I know we’re only going to end up going down there for special occasions. The Chinmaya organization is down there. I love their services and their teaching, but the wonderful kids classes fill up really quickly.

So the other day we were riding our bikes down to the lake near our house and we passed an Interfaith Center. I saw a sign on it for a Unitarian Universalist community and a Methodist community. Not all that Interfaith, I thought. But it got us talking about where we could find community to bring our children into. The UUs are Christian, but they’re so open minded that it might be okay to go there. We certainly like how they help young people become good citizens and help them learn to make good and kind choices.

We decided to give their service a try. But when I went to the website for the Interfaith Center I discovered some more communities using it. Including one organization based on the teachings of Sai Baba.

A Hindu community so close!

I know nothing about Sai Baba, though I’ve heard the name and I recognized his picture immediately.

So this week I am going to learn more about this organization and try to get in touch with the congregation to see if we can join in there. It’s likely to be more what I was hoping for than the UU church!

I’m off to do some research and tomorrow my Meet a Guru segment will be on Sai Baba. Let me know what you’ve heard, what you know about his teachings! I’ll let you know next week how it goes.

How do you go about finding a worship community? What criteria do you have?