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--- Begin Message ---Hi,last evening I had a discussion with a student of Harvard Divinity School where she was surprised that Hindus consider the tribals of India as Hindus - the reason she gave was that tribals are animists - animal worshipers. Her other grouse was that Christians in India are persecuted - but she was tactful and quickly corrected herself that maybe it was Pakistan.I stressed that it was true about India as well - but India is a violent nation, in areas where Hindus are in a minority they are persecuted - I said -for instance North East India (where in Jantia hills her church was planting churches) tribal Christians persecute non-Christians - forcing them to convert. She interjected that but tribala are animists and not Hindus.I said Hindus worship everything - for instance I do not know of the religious traditions or deities of South India but I worship them as well (for instance the Ayappa idol in the temple in Los Angeles).Now after reflection I feel that Hindus worship almost all dieties (nature) that animist tribals do - Hindus worship Air (Vayu), Fire (Agni) , Sun , Moon, Earth (Dharti), water (Varun) and animals - snake (Nag), cow, mouse (Ganesh's vehicle), elephant (as Ganesh) , monkey (as Hanuman).So I told her that I do not need to go to the temple -since I can worship anywhere. Her denomination universal unitarianism - perhaps was on similar lines -- but not all encompassing. She was training to become a woman priest in their church.It was a good discussion - she agreed that it was a colonial hangover that Hindu texts are called Hindu mythology whereas western faiths' texts are gospels.Morelater.did you learn something about your faith?Umesh
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