It was in the late sixties, when I was in the upper secondary school. On Fridays, at about 11.00am, my Christian friends of that school would go to Bible studies in a nearby church, while our Muslim friends would go to Quran studies. But we Hindus would be left wondering at the school corridor or the play-ground without doing anything. While the Muslim and Christian friends acquire knowledge from reading their respective scriptures, the Hindu students become ignorant of their own religion. This state of ignorant among the Hindus prevail everywhere even till today.
What is the reason for this condition of ignorance among the Hindus. The most significant reason is that we do not have the habit of refering to any religious text despite the fact that we have plenty of books. We are fortunate that we live in a Muslim country, where there are seminars and workshops conducted in institutions for Muslims. Somehow or rather, our Hindu children were influenced by this sharing of knowledge. Five times a day we hear prayers blaring through loud speakers from the nearby mosques that reminds us the need for prayers. When I was a government servant, I attended several courses, where there would be one subject on Islamic values. I used to wonder why there was no such sharing of knowledge on Hinduism among us.
