An Encounter with a Staunch Roman Catholic

Today I gave a tour of Akshardham to a rather wealthy (and rather old) Italian businessman. He was a gentle, and rather harmless fellow, and I figured that he was most likely a fairly staunch Roman Catholic (being from Rome as he was), but I didn't realize immediately just HOW Roman Catholic.

A bit of background first. I usually start of my tours to foreigners with a small conversation where I try to gauge their knowledge and perceptions of Hinduism. I let them know that other foreigners sometimes come to Swaminarayan Akshardham with some minor misconceptions about Hinduism and India. For example, over the course of a western, predominantly Christian-community-immersed education, one is led to believe that the three most representative parts of Hinduism and India are the adherence to the Caste system, the worship of Cows, and the eating of Curry. I then ask if they would be willing to let me share India's amazing cultural heritage with them. When they affirm, I ask them to put aside everything they think they know about India and "follow me!"

This opening number went according to plan with the kind, old Italian man. We went to see the exhibitions first. He was stunned by the audio-animatronic presentation in the first exhibition hall, but didn't quite understand why we kept referring to Swaminarayan as "Bhagwan," especially since that was the term for God:

"But I don't understand... The Bible says that the only way to salvation is by accepting Jesus Christ as the saviour. And the Father is in heaven, so how does He come down to Earth?"

I realized at that point what I was dealing with. Having accepted the Bible as an infallible truth, he attempted to view the world through its lens and it skewed his perception of just about everything he saw at Akshardham. After a significant amount of explanation, I managed to convince him to accept that not EVERYONE perceived the world as the Bible dictated it, and that seeing the world a different way WASN'T an affront to Christianity - Hindus simply did things differently. "I'm just trying to share a bit about the way we see the world," I told him. It worked. I told him about BAPS' socio-spiritual goals, and the extensive humanitarian work in which we engaged. By the end of his visit, he had done the abhishek pujan (ritualized bathing of the murti* of God), and commented, "While our bishops can't seem to keep their pants on, yours are re-building entire villages!"

At the end of the exhibitions and the trip through the main monument at Akshardham, he said, "Wow, Swaminarayan really IS doing God's work."

I think that was a pretty successful tour.

*life-like image that worshippers believe to be enlivened, through ritual, by God Himself.