Imagine you peek through your living room blinds. A minivan is pulling up to the house across the street. Out steps a woman with a long, thick braid, a red bindi glinting on her forehead. Her salwar kameez dazzles your eyes with color as the long tunic, loose-fitting pants and scarf contrast with the beige homes. The woman’s husband and children are carrying suitcases into the house.
You have new neighbors!
Will you walk over and introduce yourself? Bring over a casserole later that evening? Or do you feel intimidated and unsure of how to relate to a Hindu family?
Of the 1.2 billion Hindu people in the world, the United States is home to an estimated 2.5 million foreign-born Hindu people. They may hail from India or Bangladesh. They may wear traditional clothing or dress like you. They may be your neighbors or coworkers. One thing is for sure: God brought them into your life for a reason.
When my family moved to India, I had heard about reincarnation, karma and 330 million Hindu gods.1 But I did not really know how Hindus see the world. After seven years in India and hundreds of conversations, three aspects of Hindu culture and religion helped me understand and share Jesus with Hindu people.
Dharma
The word dharma is sometimes translated “duty.” But dharma is more than showing up to work on time. It refers to the complex set of expectations and requirements you were born to fulfill. It is your place in a balanced universe. Your caste, gender, birth order and family situation all dictate your dharma, and a good Hindu is one who faithfully executes their duties. In fact, our word “religion” is translated dharm in Hindi.
Remember Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories? Stories are powerful tools for passing on culture to children, and one of the questions they answer best is, “What is a good person?”
Your Hindu neighbors also grew up hearing stories. Although there is some overlap in teachings—it is bad to steal and good to be kind—Hindu stories like the Bhagavad Gita teach that fulfilling your duty makes you a good person . . . even if that duty is to fight friends or family in a war.
Some aspects of dharma are very beautiful, such as a woman’s duty to sacrificially love and care for her children, her devotion to religion and to her husband or parents, and her generous hospitality. Others are more limiting, such as the duty to perform only actions acceptable within one’s caste or to stay in the religion into which one was born.
This is one reason why the idea of following Jesus is so difficult. It is not just about ceasing to worship idols; it is about giving up many of the rituals and community responsibilities that make someone a “good person.”
Yet when we call people to follow Jesus, we are calling them to fulfill a higher and more important dharma than the one they were born with. We are calling them to fulfill the duty they have to their Creator. Allegiance to the one true God may bring them into conflict with their religion and family, but ultimately allows them to serve and respect their families and communities more deeply through Christ.
Karma
Before moving to India, I read that Hindus wish they could escape the cycle of reincarnation. However, I found that most people were too preoccupied with their current life to worry about achieving moksha (the ultimate liberation that comes after an endless cycle of birth, death and reincarnation). Instead, the idea of reincarnation answered the age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And what can I do about that?
A man in our village was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer. He was young, not yet married, and an all-around nice guy. After exhausting his medical options, he threw a banquet for the community and gave away as much clothing as he could afford. He and his family hoped to balance his karma so he could be healed.
“Maybe he murdered someone in a past life,” a neighbor said after the man died. “At that time, it may have seemed like he got away with it. But now he must pay.”
If you grew up a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, you could probably give a long and nuanced explanation for why bad things happen to good people.
But your Hindu friends likely have a different way of looking at pain, suffering and evil. In fact, although Hindus value compassion and respect for life, my Hindu friends sometimes seemed cold or indifferent to the suffering of others. It took time to understand why.
“It’s best not to help a suffering person too much,” the same neighbor advised us. “You may interrupt the process of cosmic justice for them, and they will suffer worse later.”
When God brings you into deep conversations about good, evil and suffering with your Hindu neighbors, listen first. Ask questions. Seek to understand their personal take on these subjects. Then share the deep love and compassion of Jesus, who carries our sorrows and will make everything right in the end. Also, ensure your Hindu friend does not understand Christian concepts through their Hindu lens, like misunderstanding being born again as referring to reincarnation.
Bhakti
Bhakti indicates loyalty, fidelity and discipleship. It is one path a Hindu can take to have a close relationship with a god. Within this relationship, the bhakta, or disciple, dedicates themselves to the teachings of their god. They exist to serve, submit to and learn from their god.
My friend Darshika is short and feisty, with expressive eyes and a ready laugh. I shared the gospel with her in a simple way, knowing it contradicted everything she knew about the world.
“I believe you,” she said. “And I will only worship the Creator God from now on!”
It took years for Darshika to sort through her beliefs, to replace her thoughts and ideas with what the Bible teaches. She did not always believe everything perfectly or do everything a “good Christian” should do. In fact, for years she prayed that I would be her sister in a future reincarnation! But from the moment she chose to follow Jesus, her perspective began to change. It is the same for you and me, each morning, we open our Bibles and let the Holy Spirit teach us.
All I had to do to be a missionary to Darshika was to live my faith, sincerely care about her, and share whenever God brought me an opportunity. All she had to do was choose to become His disciple. Like Peter of old, she left everything to follow Him, and He took care of the details.
Putting it all together
Not all Hindus are alike, just like not all Christians are alike. But what a privilege it is to know a Hindu! You are called to be the hands and feet of Christ to someone precious to God—to love them sincerely, to seek to understand the way they think, to share your faith like you would share food with a new neighbor.
Show a genuine interest in your Hindu friends. Ask them about their beliefs. And when the opportunity arises, keep your focus on Jesus, His love, His unselfish life and His forgiveness, particularly when you sense they are weighed down with guilt or a sense of hopelessness due to the unmerciful law of karma.
So, what are you waiting for? Vegetarianism is highly respected in Hinduism. So, throw that veggie casserole in the oven and get ready to learn and share! Or better yet, consider becoming a missionary to the world’s 1.2 billion Hindus. You may have to trade the casserole for curry, but imagine the light you will be able to share.
