In India, religion is all around. It influences the people’s every day life and is a main determinant of the country’s culture. Fortunately, here at the beach, there is no temple in sight, so we have some rest and can reflect about our previous experiences …. just that you know that we do not relax on the beach!

Hinduism is fundamentally different from the religions we have in Europe (Steve is Christian whereas I am agnostic). As previously noted, Hinduism is much more concrete. It speaks to the senses: The rituals comprise meditative music, bells ringing, worshipping images, colourful statues and the use of perfumed essences. Moreover, it gives answers and offers help for much more topics than Christianity. If you want to get rich, if you search for a pretty girlfriend, if you are afraid of diseases or car crashes or if you need a quiet hour to calm down, then the Bible has very few specific recommendations to offer. In India they have. There is a prayer, a priest or a temple for all of these problems, such that the devotees almost never have the feeling of being let alone. Admittedly, the fact that you have to pay for most of these services gives a strong incentive to “develop” a metaphysical solution for any problem.

On the other hand, it does not have to be a disadvantage if the religion gives you a hint which problems are truly important and which are not. In Hinduism we have the impression they think of their gods as a bit stupid. Provided you offered the right ritual, the gods will do as you told them. Or to speak with the words of one of our couchsurfing host: “They try to bribe the Gods”. So in effect, religion is a big business here. Probably we will never get used to this attitude towards the sacred, but at least people here have the feeling that they got fair value for their money.

A second point we would like to talk about is the hypothesis that Hinduism – or polytheism in general – is more tolerant than a monotheistic religion. This is not true. The relationship to the Muslim minority is not free of conflicts. They suffer discrimination, xenophobic riots have occurred and public celebrations of their festive holidays sometimes have to be protected by the police. We do not say that Hindus are less tolerant, but only that they face the same problems like every other religion (unfortunately the same holds for Buddhist – see the current pogroms in Myanmar). What makes people tolerant are – in our opinion – an enlightened education, experiences with and sympathy for other faiths, but not primarily the own religion, which can be interpreted one way or the other.

When it comes to how they deal among each other, we rather think that Hindus are less tolerant than other religions. We are not experts in Hindu theology, but we have heard of the main points and we can directly see the effects the religion has on the society. Especially there are three aspects which lack in Hinduism. Actually, we realized only here how deeply rooted these three aspects are in our culture.

1) Hindus still have a magic world-view. Gods are everywhere: in a stone, in a plant, in a cow. And a miracle may happen at any place, at any time: If the Divine wants to break the nature’s laws, why shouldn’t it do so? Christian, Jewish and Muslim view is very different. “This Life / This World” and “Hereafter / The Beyond” are relatively clearly separated, and the first one can be examined scientifically. Just take the “Creation Myth”: There it is said that on one day, God put some lamps onto the sky, which are now the stars. At first sight this does not sound really scientific, and some conservative Christians “argue” with it against modern science. But historically, this is an attempt by the Jewish writers to offend the Babylonians, who believed that the stars were gods. If you had told them that the stars are actually far distant suns, maybe they would have considered it to be a bit too complicated and long for their concise myth. But they surely would not have had a real problem with it, since the aim was that nature is separated from the Divine. Therefore, it is the “Creation Myth” that helps seeing the world in a rational way. So compared to Hinduism, you should try and solve your problems using the same manner. No magic formula will help you.

2) Freedom and Individualism. We have the impression that Christianity provide many more arguments in favor of individual freedom than Hinduism. This point might be the most controversial of the three. Admittedly, Hindus may have more choices within their religion, different people have different favorite gods and rituals. But at least as we have seen it during the short time we were here, Hindu obligations often refer to society, not only to individuals. You have the duty to behave as it can be expected from someone of your caste and status. For instance, if you are casteless, you are not allowed to touch certain things and you have the obligation to do the most inferior tasks. Other castes are expected to have certain jobs and climbing up the social ladder is impossible. As a contrast, in the “New Testament” there are surprisingly few duties and those which exist usually refer either to other humans or to God. As long as relationships to others or to God are not affected, you have a big realm of freedom of choice – explicitly Christian shall not judge anyone for how he lives and what he does.

3) Equality. One of the main institution of Hinduism is the one and only goal to prevent people from being equal: the caste system. This has massive impacts on everyone. The thought of having distinct castes is so deeply rooted that sometimes even we are asked whether we are from the same caste. Perhaps they are considerate within the caste, but towards others, they are pure racists. It is clearly seen in the every day life that they never feel like there is something which connects all of us. So in public, in the small and the big things, you see so much reckless behavior. That is why in general, the society appears extremely unsocial to us. Quite the opposite is the case regarding Christianity. Of course, it is not that all are helpful and nice in Europe. But at least there is the demand that you should be so – and towards everyone. The most beautiful example for this is the story of the “Good Samaritan”. Remember that this is not simply a story about how you should behave, it is the answer to the question “who is my neighbor?”. So you are obliged to love not just someone of your family, nation, religion or caste, but everyone. And above all, he who is the role model actually has the wrong religion. This is a story which bursts boundaries and we can be happy that it had a lasting and decisive impact on our society.

To sum up this essay: In some sense, Europe is still a Christian continent, even though today we do not have to justify these values in a religious way. And especially I as an agnostic think we can be really happy that our culture has been shaped by Christianity and not by Hinduism.

And after these heavy thoughts, it is now time for light pictures from Gokarna, where we lived at the “Namaste Cafe” on the “Om Beach”.