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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 24 Article 10

November 2011

Viewpoint: Teaching in Catholic High Schools

Pravrajika Saradeshaprana

Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier

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Recommended Citation Saradeshaprana, Pravrajika and Tiemeier, Tracy Sayuki (2011) "Viewpoint: Teaching Hinduism in Catholic High Schools," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 24, Article 10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1487

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler . For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Saradeshaprana and Tiemeier: Viewpoint: Teaching Hinduism in Catholic High Schools

VIEWPOINT: TEACHING HINDUISM IN CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS Pravrajika Saradeshaprana Vedanta Society of Southern California and Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier Loyola Marymount University

THE Los Angeles Hindu-Catholic Dialogue for textbooks used in Catholic primary and recently organized a workshop at Loyola secondary schools. While addressing these Marymount University on Teaching Hinduism issues, emphasis was placed on constructive in Catholic High Schools (May 2010). Initiated dialogue and resources teachers could by a Hindu member of the Dialogue who was realistically use in Catholic settings. The Los disturbed by the World textbook used Angeles Hindu-Catholic Dialogue spent two in a local Catholic high school, the workshop’s years creating a four-page resource list for goal was to help teachers of at teaching Hinduism, but we were unprepared for Catholic high schools teach Hindu traditions the numerous Hindu participants and subsequent more accurately and respectfully. The daylong requests we received for resources in event featured sessions on Hindu Perspectives understanding . Clearly, there is on , Resources and Strategies in much room left in the conversation! Teaching Hinduism, and small group dialogues What follows are reflections based on our between Hindu speakers and attendees and presentations from the event. These reflections Catholic teachers. are focused on teaching Hinduism and world The organizing Dialogue group was aware religions in Catholic high schools. Of course, the of contentious issues around textbooks, which issues and methods shift in different contexts: include not only the representation of Hinduism what is appropriate at the high school level will in textbooks but also the requirements by the not be appropriate at the university level, and Conference of Catholic Bishops vice versa.

Pravrajika Saradeshaprana graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1967. She came to America to join the convent of the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 1968 and received final vows of renunciation in 1979. Active in interfaith work, Saradeshaprana has written papers for domestic violence advocates on counseling Hindu clients and helped to organize conferences to educate in the diagnosing and counseling of victims of domestic violence. She has taught in academic and religious environments on Hindu spiritual practices in general, but is particularly interested in women’s and spiritual practices in the Hindu tradition, and Hindu (ritualistic ).

Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. She teaches in the areas of , Hinduism, comparative , Asian and Asian American theology, and and culture. Her research considers the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender in comparative theology and interreligious dialogue, with a particular focus on Asian and Asian American women as agents of dialogue and change. Her current project reflects on constructions of women’s virtue in classical Tamil literature and devotional poetry to inform a Catholic theology of women’s embodiment. Tracy also co-chairs the Los Angeles Hindu- Catholic Dialogue.

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 24 (2011):46-50

Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2011 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 24 [2011], Art. 10 Viewpoint: Teaching Hinduism in Catholic High Schools 47

We can no longer ignore the vast diversity free from conflict, misunderstanding, and gross of the world’s religions, and we can no longer violations of humanity. While setting aside the pretend that our own tradition is the only ever-present problem of making normative religion that provides enriching answers to the claims across traditions, every religious tradition ultimate questions of human existence. We live, bears the weight of its past and present, which work, play, and pray next to persons of many includes moments where adherents have failed religious traditions. We therefore owe it to our to live up to the internal standards of a tradition; high school students to equip them with a basic where leaders control religious truths for the knowledge of religions so they can negotiate the sake of selfish goals; where practitioners battle world around them. between themselves and others over what Beyond basic , there are constitutes true faith. Interfaith education must additional reasons for interfaith education. Here bring students to a more critical awareness of in Los Angeles, we have a wonderfully rich their own tradition as well as others. For without multicultural community, but we have seen first a deeper understanding of the complexities of hand what happens when understanding breaks religious traditions, students cannot move down. We have also seen the power of interfaith beyond naïve, immature faith or be competent to understanding to hold together and build up respond to the challenges of our day. broken communities. It was the religious In this regard, Catholic high school infrastructure of Los Angeles that held together interfaith education must be mindful of during the 1992 LA riots, as religious implications of teaching other religious communities came together and helped the city traditions in its curriculum. For hundreds of heal. Interfaith dialogue and education helps years was under foreign domination with strengthen the religious bonds in our ruling regimes that at the best misunderstood communities, create a rich network of religious and denigrated Hinduism, and at the worst friendships, and enables us to join together to desecrated or destroyed sacred icons and serve our community more effectively. persecuted those who worshiped them. The There are spiritual reasons for interfaith history of Christian conversion, violence, and education, as well. An interfaith education looks imperialism in India therefore makes the at similarities and differences in the practices of teaching of Hinduism in Catholic contexts, even other . Through this dynamic, students are when done with the best of intentions, a invited to see and appreciate the spiritual truths sensitive topic. The issues of representation and in other religious traditions. Encountering the underlying motives will inevitably be raised. spiritual riches of other traditions helps to Especially in religious contexts where Christian deepen our own spiritual practice, in whatever faith is taught all four years of the curriculum shape it takes. We see our own practice in new and without consideration of the history of ways, discover aspects of our own tradition that Christian domination, exclusion, and injustice, we had not previously known, and are the presentation of other traditions comes off as challenged in positive ways to give an account – at best - one sided and – at worst – an attempt of our faith. Interfaith education is not merely an to teach Catholic superiority and convert non- academic exercise but contributes towards Catholic students. creating greater harmony in our communities A few ground rules can help navigate the and greater understanding of self, other, and dangerous waters of teaching Hinduism in ultimate . Catholic high schools in a way that invites both Finally, there is a critical component to critical understanding as well as spiritual responsible interfaith education, even at the high appreciation: school level. The dynamics of religious thought 1. Remember the rules of fair play. It is a and practice are complex, multifaceted, and fundamental principle of interfaith dialogue and often ambiguous. The history of religions may comparative study not to compare the worst of testify to the power of , someone else’s religion with the best of one’s understanding, and cooperation; but it is hardly own.

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol24/iss1/10 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1487 2 Saradeshaprana and Tiemeier: Viewpoint: Teaching Hinduism in Catholic High Schools 48 Pravrajika Saradeshaprana and Trace Sayuki Tiemeier

2. Think globally; teach locally. Catholic traditions other than Christianity, it behooves us American high schools are not teaching to find ways for students to learn from and Hinduism in village India, but in contemporary alongside each other about their own distinctive America. The closest many American Hindu faith traditions. Beyond this, field trips, students have been to a cow is passing one at 70 speakers, weekend programs, or structured miles an hour on the freeway. It is helpful to retreats with young people of other traditions are focus on the type of Hinduism that students are invaluable practices for students. Interfaith likely to experience, wherever they are. This services or participation in the spiritual reinforces that Hindu traditions are living paths of other traditions provide deep traditions that shift over time and space, and possibilities for encounter and transformation. adapt to their local contexts. For American Yoga, , and the celebration of non- Catholic students to see Hinduism as both a Christian cultural and religious holidays are all global and local religion is an important lesson ways in which students can see first-hand how it for entering public life and for understanding the is that religious traditions are living, adaptable, varied nature of religious traditions. vibrant communal . Through actual 3. Present the everyday sacred. It is interfaith experiences, students learn about other important at the high school level to teach daily persons, but they also learn more deeply about practices and customs. Introducing students to themselves and their own faith. the practices of everyday living, particularly An experiential approach is very Hindu, within the home, makes any religious tradition though we must remember that the world of more relatable to students, even if those Hindu spirituality is quite different from practices are quite different. This knowledge Christian spirituality. To teach Hindu spirituality will enable students, long after they have left in Catholic schools, we must be prepared to school, to be respectful of another’s religious challenge students to encounter themselves in a beliefs and practices, to know how to behave very different way. Hindu faith is not based on when visiting a Hindu home, to be able to host the divine revelation of one male founder. The Hindu friends, and to have an understanding of way view religious texts and mystical some of the ceremonies of the family of their experience is very different. There is not a friends and colleagues. divinely revealed, institutionally sanctioned Catholic faith is not opposed to the legal system that places a universal standard of recognition of the spiritual truths in other conduct on all its adherents. Hindus have no religions. Indeed, the tension between forming a particularly recognized spokesperson with an strong Catholic identity and forming students official view on almost any subject. In some open to the wisdom of the world can be a schools of Hinduism, sacred self is conceived in productive one, if we see the commitment to terms of a relationship with (one’s real religious diversity as integral to the overall identity is that of a child of the Divine Mother, institutional goal of transformation and the or the servant of God, or the friend of God), Catholic spiritual practice of finding God in all while other schools conceive sacred self as non- things. Taking a more experiential approach to differential union with Brahman, the all- religious education therefore means coming pervading Divine Reality. Nevertheless, clearly from one’s own tradition, but learning experiential realization is central for Hindu about other and self through a dynamic, engaged traditions, however differently that may be encounter with other faiths and other religious envisioned and practiced. Such an experiential persons. emphasis is a powerful place to begin teaching This kind of approach may be a challenge Hinduism in Catholic high schools; for it offers for schools where a large majority of students a starting point for exploring Hinduism that can are Catholic. However, Catholic schools both highlight the similarities and differences everywhere are growing more and more with Christianity, as well as ground that religiously diverse, for a variety of reasons. In exploration in a spiritual journey. cases where classes have students from religious After grounding the study of Hinduism in

Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2011 3 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 24 [2011], Art. 10 Viewpoint: Teaching Hinduism in Catholic High Schools 49

spiritual experience, knowledge, and encounter, women have interacted in sometimes disastrous high school students are more able to move to ways, the reality of gender in Hinduism is far the critical study of Hinduism. Such a move is more complex than it may at first appear. There based on theories of religious education, which are innumerable Hindu women’s , approach religious education developmentally. , saints, and theo(a)logies that are As a young person grows in understanding, she essential for understanding Hinduism. is more equipped to ask difficult questions about Moreover, polyvalent discourses and practices her tradition and come to a critical faith. of gender complementarity, gender reversal, and Similarly, from the standpoint of experiential gender multiplicity abound. Ultimately, gender appreciation of a living and vibrant Hinduism, a is so varied and fluid in Hindu traditions, any student is better able to look at some of the assertion about gender in Hinduism must be difficult questions that vex all religious contextualized and counterbalanced. traditions. There must also be a balanced discussion of Toward that end, we’d like to conclude with caste in the Catholic high school . two particularly contentious issues for teaching While caste discrimination and violence Hinduism: gender and caste. Religion is continues, caste must not be presented as a inevitably entangled in the socio-political. monolithic, unchanging reality. Hindu attitudes Cultural views of gender and class influence toward caste across time have differed and even religious views of gender and class, and contradicted each other. Religious arguments for religious views in turn sanction cultural and attempts at caste reform, caste subversion, perspectives. Yet, although religion is embedded and even caste eradication occurred long before in a cultural context, it can be (at least partially) Gandhi. Moreover, caste crosses Indian religious distinguished. Thus, essential to the critical traditions (including Indian Catholic and Indian study of religion is teaching students the ability American Catholic traditions), making the to understand religion as a part of culture while religious and social dimensions of caste muddy yet helping them (as quixotic a task as it may be) and complicated. to discern between what elements of a religious It is unrealistic to think that Catholic schools tradition reflect cultural attitudes that can and do have the freedom to explore Catholic sexism, shift over time and what elements are properly heterosexism, and racism as fully as with religious. Hinduism. But this is precisely the problem, as it Both gender and caste are controversial clearly violates our first rule in interfaith topics, and they can be used to essentialize education of fair play. Is it intellectually honest Hinduism and reinforce Christian hegemony. or fair to take a critical approach to Hinduism Particularly in a tightly governed Catholic but not with Catholicism? We urge Catholic curriculum that forbids a full exploration of high school teachers to treat difficult topics in gender in Christianity (say to consider Catholic other religious traditions as one would treat support for same-sex marriage or women’s difficult topics in Catholicism. Yes, take a ), Catholicism is given a free pass critical approach, but do so with sensitivity. while Hinduism is not. In fact, gender and In the end, to ignore the difficult issues class/caste/racial discrimination have been and religions face is just as problematic as presenting are given religious sanction in many religious unbalanced perspectives on them. To face them traditions – including Christianity. This is not to head on provides a powerful opportunity to say that therefore Hinduism should be given a educate for justice. In America, we live in a pass. What it means is that we can and should supposedly post-feminist, post-racial society. discuss gender and caste, but it must be done Those of us who see continued discrimination with intellectual honestly and in the context of and violence based on gender, sexual critical approaches to all the traditions under orientation, and race know that America has consideration. much work to do before we can claim such a While it cannot (nor should not) be denied reality. In the context of an interfaith education that Hindu cultural and religious attitudes about at a Catholic high school, students can learn

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol24/iss1/10 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1487 4 Saradeshaprana and Tiemeier: Viewpoint: Teaching Hinduism in Catholic High Schools 50 Pravrajika Saradeshaprana and Trace Sayuki Tiemeier

where and Hindus have contributed to the problems of past and present but also where they have been powerful leaders for a just society. The resources in both traditions can be studied and retrieved as students become thoughtful, faithful, and ethical adults.

Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2011 5