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Anant Rambachan plays international role in movement for peace

By Carole Leigh Engblom
February 10, 2003

St. Olaf College Professor of Religion Anant Rambachan believes that religion can be a constructive partner in the search for peace -- but only if followers of the world's major religious traditions engage in dialogue about their shared values and goals, while respecting and honoring differences.

Anantanand Rambachan
Rambachan
That is the message Rambachan is delivering in the United States and abroad, gaining a national and international reputation as a respectful, learned voice in the global movement for peace.

A three-time visitor to the Vatican, Rambachan participated in a colloquium, "Spiritual Resources of Religions for Peace," convened in January by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He also was at the Vatican in June 2002 to discuss how the ideal of interreligious cooperation can be translated into action on global problems such as poverty, pollution, AIDS, arms proliferation, and justice and peace for all.

He also delivered an address at Stanford University in January 2003 called "Exploring Religious Boundaries and Conflicts." "Dialogue is difficult, risky and challenging," he explains, "but it is a necessity of our times."

Rambachan (pronounced rom-BOC-on) has ample opportunity for dialogue with students and colleagues as a Hindu at a college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "The United States is now the world's most religiously diverse nation," he says, "and our teaching and learning here must recognize the challenges of this fact."

At the request of the White House, Rambachan flew to Houston, Texas, on Feb. 4, 2003, to attend the memorial service for the astronauts killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia and to honor the memory of Kalpana Chawla, a native of Karnal, India, and a Hindu.

Chawla's family asked that a specific Hindu remembrance not be read, although Rambachan had prepared the following text:

Across the boundaries of our religious traditions and nationalities, Jewish, Christian and Hindu, Americans and Israelis, we stand today as one human family united in grief and sorrow, joined in our loss and mourning.

Across the boundaries of our religious traditions and nationalities, we are united also in our feelings of reverence, gratitude and humility as we contemplate the heroic courage and energy that inspired our astronauts to undertake risk-filled journeys afar in pursuit of truths for our common human enrichment and well being. Each in her and his way embodied the finest gifts of humanity in discipline, dedication and commitment to excellence. Each life is and will be an inspiration to countless others.

Today most meaningfully, we stand together in our faith in God, the God of us all, from whom we are never separate in life or death and who unites us life jewels on a string. In God there are no limits of space or time and we are always one with those whom we love.

In the midst of our grief, we find hope in our faith's assurance that death is not the end of existence and that the indestructible human spirit of our Columbia astronauts remains untouched by death.

I recall and share with you today words from the Bhagavadgita, celebrating this deathless human spirit, words that, for centuries, have blessed the sorrowing human heart with healing and peace:

It is not born, It does not die; Having been, It never ceases to be; Unborn, enduring, and constant, It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed

Weapons do not cut it, Fire does not burn it, Waters do not wet it, Wind does not cause it to wither.

It is said to be inconceivable, invisible and unchanging; In this understanding we find solace in grief.

Rambachan is active in the dialogue programs of the World Council of Churches. He has lectured in Germany, India, Kenya, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland. He also gives monthly presentations at the Hindu Society of Minnesota.

Rambachan was born in Trinidad. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, and then traveled to Britain, where he earned a master's degree and Ph.D. at the University of Leeds.

A member of the St. Olaf faculty since 1985, he teaches courses on Hinduism, on major non-Christian religions and on religious pluralism.

Contact Carole Leigh Engblom at 507-786-3315 or leigh@stolaf.edu.