How to Teach

How to Teach

It is not an exaggeration when the Mahabharata claims that, ‘…whatever about Dharma, Artha and Kama, that is contained in this Bharata, may be met with elsewhere; but whatever is not in it, is not to be found anywhere.’1

Of course, though one cannot find all the teachings of every faith in a single literature like the Mahabharata, still, with much confidence, one can say that we can find most of the teachings of other major religions (like Christianity, Islam, etc.) in various Scriptures in Hinduism (including Jainism and Buddhism), both in Sanskrit and various regional languages, including in the unwritten oral literature. But how to teach the children of Hindu bhaktas about bhakti in the Lord without depriving them of their rich heritage in Hinduism is a big challenge that most of the Hindu bhaktas of the Lord face.

Particularly in the present world, where social media and the internet provide various options for everyone to search for materials to teach, it won’t be a simple task. Reading books written to help teach basic Hindu tenets or finding materials on the internet, though they might help, still won’t address the needs of every individual or family. As many of those books were written objectively, keeping a wider audience (mostly Diaspora Hindus), each bhakta has to begin from the basic elementary level of understanding that they personally learned from their family tradition. According to my conviction, it is better to begin with your family tradition, as when it comes to the final authority on so many rituals and faith, finally what one’s family upholds is so important in Hinduism, unlike the rest of the other religions. What scripture says is never discussed or even thought about, but how particular things are done according to family tradition is crucial for each family.

Having said that, how to give a small summary of the basic teachings of Hinduism to children from where one can further develop is not that easy, as no single scripture is recognized as having the final authority in Hinduism. For example, if we can say that the main teaching of the Purvaveda is the Ten Commandments and in the Uttaraveda what the Lord says is ‘love the God with your whole heart, mind, and spirit and love your neighbor as yourself,’ we cannot give such a short summary of teaching on Hinduism. However, I would say that the one important teaching in Hinduism is ‘dharmam chara’ = follow your dharma. Though not every (major) scripture mainly teaches on the topic of dharma, still we can safely say that they all are guiding every individual towards it.

As we know well, the word ‘dharma’ cannot be translated into any other language; in our teaching, we need to contextualize it when we impart any teaching on Hinduism. Next to dharma, one major word that almost summarizes all of Hinduism could be ‘karma’ (karmasamsara). So we can say that both ‘dharma and karma’ are the two tracks on which Hinduism runs. It is interesting to note that Muktiveda equally talks about ‘karma,’ though not in the same doctrinal stand that we find in Hinduism about karma. But the concept of ‘karma’ has an important place in Muktiveda, as we find so many references about it (Gal 6:7; Rom 2:6; Phi. 2:22, Rev. 14:13, 22:12).

But for me, while we teach the basics of Muktiveda and Hinduism to our children, we need to pay attention to where they differ in the application of those teachings. And the one major difference between the teaching of Muktiveda and that of Hinduism is that the former’s teaching is centered around God, whereas that of the latter is on dharma.

You do this because God has asked you to do it, is what Muktiveda teaches. Or you do this because God has done that for you already, for you to emulate in your life. For example, you have to love your neighbor because God loves you. You have to forgive others as God has forgiven you, etc. Whereas in Hinduism, it is your dharmic obligation. To better understand this, let me take another example. You have to give in charity and help others in their need. According to Muktiveda, this you have to do as it is a commandment of God. Though you will be rewarded for that, still you have to do it not to earn any reward (merit or punya), but it is an obligation on your part. Though in Hinduism, charity is praised as the highest virtue and one has to do charity without expecting anything in return, still the subtle teaching in Hinduism is that it will help you earn punya and also get rid of your past (bad) karma. And in this, God may or may not have any role to play. Because according to Hinduism, every karma (act) will automatically bring its own consequence, irrespective of God’s intervention. The famous saying in Hinduism is: Dharmo rakshati rakshitah = dharma will protect those who protect dharma. Reward or punishment comes on its own, independent of God’s interference. As the famous saying goes (in Hinduism), ‘we are not punished for our sins but by our sins’. Of course, bhakti literature always upholds God’s intervention in a bhakta’s life, but here the emphasis is on highlighting the importance of bhakti and not dismissing the automatic consequences of karma.

So a Hindu bhakta of the Lord, while imparting the teachings of Muktiveda, might end up answering many questions and doubts that naturally come to the minds of their children. And they must be equipped to address it properly. While teaching on Muktiveda, without giving any negative picture of Hinduism, we have to keep a careful balance where both Hinduism and Muktiveda differ. Let me share another example. Muktiveda says: God is love {better ‘God is Loving’2}. Hinduism says that: God is love, and love is God. But note the difference. Muktiveda never says that Love is God. Whereas in Hinduism, several attributes like Love, Truth, Time, Dharma, etc., are also personified as God.

Let me give another practical way to teach. When you share your bhakti, the natural question that might come to the children’s mind is: When we have so many gods of our own and when our grandparents and other relatives are worshiping them faithfully, why do we need another alien deity in our home? To address such a question, we can bring up the concept of our freedom as Hindus to choose our own ‘ishtadevata’ (god of personal choice). Even in our family, though so many deities are worshiped, each individual could have their own ishtadevata, or a particular family could have its own ‘kula devata,’ except in staunch Vaishnavites and Veerasaivas, where only Vishnu and Siva alone are worshiped. Then we can teach the children that as our Hindu tradition gives us this freedom to have our own ishtadevata, you have chosen ‘Muktinath’ as your ishtadevata.

Then what about worshiping and respecting other Hindu deities? Of course, as we have imparted enough teaching on this subject, I need not repeat it here. We respect them as part of our family tradition and religious heritage but do not worship them. Regarding participating in family pujas and functions and taking Prasad, I have already written a lot. Our absence will be highlighted more than our presence. But never do this with any spirit of showing some concession to your parents or relatives as if they are begging for it because of our faith in the Lord. It is part of your dharma towards your parents and relatives to respect their faith and tradition.

In my case, I would say to the children, ‘I never chose Muktinath. I was searching for a guru to guide me. Though I never sought him or even liked him, finally, I got an opportunity to know about him as my guru. Then I gave him a chance to prove that he is the guru whom I was searching for. When I was convinced both in my spirit and brain, then I began to follow him.’ Similarly, you also give him a chance, and if you are convinced that he can be your Ishtadevata, then follow him. There is no compulsion in this from our side. You can also tell your children that as their parent, you want to share the good things that you received in your life—including in your spiritual life.

Then you can teach about the two concepts of ‘samajic dharma’ and ‘sadhana dharma’. We cannot change samajic dharma as we are born into it. But we can change our sadhana dharma to suit our personal needs. As Hinduism gives this inner freedom for us to choose our sadhana dharma, now in our sadhana, we follow Bhagavan Muktinath as our god or guru or teacher or leader, etc.

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11-05-2020 

1 M.N.[Manmatha Nath] Dutt, Mahabharata, Delhi, Parimala Publications, 7 vols. Vol. I. 1988, ADI PARVA, Ch. 62. {[Vaishampayana to Janamejaya]. p.83

2 According to Dr. Hoefer the phrase ‘God is love’in some ways is a misleading traslation.  Better would be “God is loving”.