I was born and spent my early years in Trinidad, a small island in the southern Caribbean. Both of my grandfathers were orthodox Hindu priests, so Hinduism was a pervasive presence in my family. Our local Hindu temple was a hub of religious and cultural activities, and I was very active in its programs. After I earned my undergraduate degree at the University of the West Indies, I entered a Hindu monastery in India. My three years of traditional study and practice there were very influential in my religious life, but instead of continuing on the path of monasticism, I returned to academic life at the University of Leeds, UK, and centered my work on issues that excited my interest during my monastic study. I wanted to better understand the relationship between scripture and personal experience, and this became the focus of my doctoral research and dissertation. I came to St. Olaf directly from the United Kingdom.

The Upanishads are religious-philosophical dialogues between teachers and students found at the end of the authoritative Hindu scriptures, the Vedas. For this reason the dialogues are called Vedanta (end of the Vedas). The Upanishads are the earliest available records of Hindu teachings and deal with all the traditional concerns of religious inquiry: the nature of God, the meaning of human existence and the overcoming of suffering. Although the texts are interpreted differently by various Hindu traditions, the acknowledgement of their authority is a mark of Hindu orthodoxy, and all traditions attempt to ground their claims by locating these in the Upanishads. One of the unique and challenging teachings of the Upanishads is that reality, contrary to our perception, is one, not two. The absolute (brahman) alone truly exists and is no different from the fundamental human self (atman). The recognition of this unity leads to liberation from fear, suffering and death. My scholarly research is concerned with this tradition of non-dual interpretation, known as Advaita (translated not-two).

First let me say that the recognition of common ground between two traditions is not the same as proposing their identity. Hinduism and Christianity are distinctive and different in many important ways. At the same time, they have important shared insights. Both, in their different ways, affirm the oneness of God. Christianity does so through the doctrine of the Trinity, while Hinduism speaks of the One God encountered through a diversity of names and forms. Both traditions claim that the fullness of human life is realized only by being awake and attentive to God. The fruits of attentiveness to God in both traditions include compassion, forgiveness, peace, joy, nonviolence and the overcoming of greed. There also is common ground in that practitioners of both traditions have not always been faithful to these core values in their relationship with others.

Interfaith dialogue, we must remember, is not just about the exchange of words among people sitting around a table. Dialogue is concerned with the building of good relationships and such relationships include, but are not limited to, the exchange of words. Good relationships do not presuppose or require the sameness of vision or the abandonment of distinctive self-understanding. The beauty of a good relationship is often found in the creative encounter of differences. Our need for interfaith dialogue is both political, and in a larger sense, theological. The political need arises from our understanding of the increasingly interdependent character of our lives and the fact that the major problems of our times will be solved only by cooperative actions across religious and other boundaries. Dialogue can help foster the relationships that make cooperative ethical action possible. The need is theological because in the light of the ultimate mystery of God, all human understanding is incomplete and falls short. Other religious traditions can help enrich our faith and open our hearts and minds to the inexhaustible divine.

I want to state that my appointment as Chair of the Religion Department is not meant to indicate or signal a new attitude or direction for the college. At the same time, St. Olaf, like many other academic institutions, is growing and changing. When I came here over 20 years ago, there was opposition in certain quarters to a Hindu teaching in the religion department. I even recall a faculty meeting when the introduction of a course on Hinduism was questioned. Today, courses on Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism are taught without controversy, and we are moving to make a tenure-track appointment for the teaching of Judaism. The reality and significance of religious diversity, at home and abroad, are better understood now. The United States is the world’s most religiously diverse nation, and it’s important that our students have the opportunity to think about the meaning of faith in the lives of their friends and neighbors as well as understand their own faith. Institutions should increasingly reflect the diversity of our nation and this, of course, includes religion.

Our central goal as a department is to foster biblical and theological literacy. As we continue to do this, I want to encourage and assist our faculty in offering courses that express their own scholarly passion and also enable our students to know the variety of ways religious phenomena can be investigated. Last interim I team-taught a course with Assistant Professor of Religion Greg Walter ’96, one of our Christian theologians, in which we approached theology from Christian, Hindu and Islamic perspectives. Our students benefited greatly from having both of us in the classroom and we, in turn, were enriched by each other’s expertise. I want to encourage such classroom collaboration further. With a rich history of scholarship and teaching, the St. Olaf Religion Department is one of the finest among liberal arts colleges. This is a heritage that I want to preserve and strengthen.

I have been involved for several years in the dialogue programs of the Pontifical Council. Last year we met in Rome in a joint consultation with the World Council of Churches to discuss conversion. This was the first meeting of a three-year project to study the issue and to develop an acceptable code of conduct. Certain forms of Christian proselytization have given rise to tension and even violence between some religious communities. We gathered to share our perspectives on this matter and to consider acceptable and unacceptable ways of sharing our faiths in communities. Our discussion was frank and at times difficult, but we agreed that while everyone has a right to invite others to an understanding of their faith, no one has the right to violate others’ rights and religious sensibilities. At the same time, all should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others.

This November the Elijah Interfaith Institute will meet with the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India. The focus of our meeting will be on love and forgiveness. We will talk about the wisdom that each of our religious traditions contributes to our understanding of love and reconciliation. To what extent are religious teachings about love and forgiveness religion specific? Can such teachings be shared across traditional boundaries? Can we discover any consensus on the nature of love and forgiveness? I look forward to our discussion, particularly since it is my first opportunity to dialogue with the Dalai Lama, one of the leading religious teachers of our time.