FOREWORDThe United Kingdom is perhaps the only country in the world where the government is actively promoting not just religious education in its publicly funded education system, but a 'multi-religious' education. The process no doubt throws up serious challenges such as how to reconcile varying worldviews of a vast number of religions and also how to incorporate non-religious worldviews under the same umbrella. For the process to succeed the education and faith bodies need to invoke innovative and radical ideas. In this document we have taken the liberty of presenting some ideas from the Hindu tradition that may facilitate this process. What may be seen as problems of reconciliation within the field of religious education also reflects the greater challenges faced by world religions. How can religions co-exist peacefully without having to compromise and more importantly can world religions offer a coherent response to counter the secular challenge? Even though the remit of this document is to address the needs of local education, the ideas offered in this document can be usefully employed for the better understanding and utilisation of religious teachings in society.

The format employed in the past of dividing the methodology into: 'learning about religion' and 'learning from religion' is a useful ploy that has worked well. What interests us more is the emphasis placed on developing the 'breadth of study' in RE. This offers new and exciting opportunities. This process should not be limited to studies up to Key stage 3 but be extended to cover higher age groups. The need to explore (and if necessary develop) 'connections' between different religions as well as other fields of human endeavour such as arts and sciences, allows religious education to become better integrated with other fields of study. Themes like Science and Religion should be developed in depth for higher key stages. Hinduism has a great deal to offer in this field, and would welcome greater involvement in pursuing such an agenda.

Studying many religions: It is difficult to see how 'many religions' can be taught in schools on a rational format without addressing the issue of how to reconcile the varying truth claims by these religions. This challenge should be seen as an opportunity offered to all religions to dig deeper into their own traditions to come up with broader insights. The material offered by some of our colleagues from other faiths has been extremely encouraging. Our own experience in this field has been very positive too. After making presentation of Hinduism to non-Hindu students at many venues, many students have commented that the Hindu presentation has enhanced and refreshed their understanding of their own faith! Our experience suggests that even though the theologians of the major religions may struggle with or even discourage looking for 'connections' between religions, the youngsters are far more receptive and open to exploring such ideas.

RE linked to other subjects taught in schools: This process requires developing 'connections' between religions and other subjects like arts and sciences. The broader pluralistic teachings of Hinduism have always maintained that if 'spirituality' (the subject matter of religions) is a truly universal phenomenon, then it could not be restricted to mere religious expressions. Every disciplined human endeavour in every field (arts or sciences) should reveal the same 'spirit' at its foundation.

Wittgenstein's legacy: In the postmodernist era there has been an attempt to keep religions and sciences separate in self-contained compartments under the guise of linguistics demarcation first promoted by Wittgenstein. It is suggested that both sciences and religions have their own separate self-consistent worldviews and as such they should be allowed to exist in their separate spheres. Both these fields are considered valid in their own ways and do not have to be reconciled! This attitude can best be described as relativism at its worst. This approach not only discourages us to look for connections between sciences and religions, it actually suggests that these connections have to be invalid, otherwise these two spheres are no longer self-contained or self-consistent. In our opinion such demarcation is demeaning to religions as well as sciences. Religions lose out as they are then asked to sit in a corner and not interfere with the dominant secular worldview. Due to this artificial demarcation, sciences too have lost out, as the deeper insights required in the sciences to handle major conceptual shifts taking place at its core, remain unresolved. Not exploring these connections between sciences and religions has meant that we live in a kind of schizophrenic world shifting our stand between two worldviews. Religions and sciences do not exist in different universes. Keeping them apart has been a serious mistake. Exploring 'connections' between them as part of religious education, is a wonderful opportunity to redress the balance. Religious teachings not coherent with the findings of science risk turning into an incongruent mass of superstitions. While sciences without reference to their spiritual core risk becoming vehicles propagating crass materialism.

Sciences & Religions: The findings at the cutting edge of modern sciences already point to a 'spiritual' underpinning to this world. The idea that hard sciences may be supportive of a 'spiritual' worldview may have sounded far-fetched a century ago, but the dramatic conceptual advances that have occurred in the last century, suggest a paradigm shift is in the making - a shift that will draw sciences into the realm of spirituality. This shift was already foreseen by the two Noble Prizewinners in Physics (both dubbed the fathers of modern physics). Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) said: "One cannot always distinguish between statements made by eastern metaphysics based on mystical insight, and the pronouncements of modern physics based on observations, experiments and mathematical calculations." Erwin Schroedinger (1887-1961) wished to see: "Some blood transfusion from the East to the West" to save Western science from spiritual anaemia." Our experience in presenting some of the key concepts of Quantum Mechanics, Consciousness, Theory of evolution or the Origin of the universe at sixth form conferences make us feel confident that the youth of today are able to glean a spiritual outlook at these cutting edge discoveries of mainstream sciences. We are confident that findings of modern sciences offer the best tools for revitalising love for spirituality in the youth of today.

Arts and Religions: The arts have always favoured the idea of a 'transcendent (or as some would say a spiritual) worldview'. Many religions have encouraged spiritual expression through arts, literature, poetry, music and dance. The Hindus claim that aesthetics, the transcendent aspect at the heart of these disciplines is the manifestation of the spirit. Redefining 'Aesthetics' as 'Spirituality' is debatable but one cannot ask for a better way of arousing the idea of the spirit than through arts, music, poetry, literature and dance. Exploring connections between these diverse disciplines and religions is perhaps the most practical way of exploring 'connections' in the different fields of the human endeavour.

Social Sciences and Religions: Just as there are millions of people who are ready to believe in a personal Creator, there have also been thousands of the brightest minds in this world who felt that such ideas were not sufficient for them and wanted something higher. Wherever religion was not broad enough to include all these minds, the result was that the brightest minds in society turned to anthropocentric sciences to gain a broader and better explanation of the human condition. To include those minds, therefore, religions must become broad enough. Everything a religion claims must be judged from the standpoint of reason. Why religions should claim that they are not bound to abide by the standpoint of reason, no one knows. If one does not take the standard of reason there cannot be any true judgement, even in the case of religions. The Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism claims that the most transparent manifestation of God is man. In this sense, Hinduism is sympathetic to the Humanist agenda but with a very important qualification. Hinduism promotes the idea that man is essentially a spiritual being caught on a material journey, while the Humanist agenda suggests that man is essentially a material being consciously or unconsciously using ideas of 'spirituality' to enhance his material condition. The resolution of this paradox lies in the correct interpretation of the findings of modern evolutionary science. Hinduism offers unusual insights on this subject and would wholeheartedly support the idea of 'Spiritual Humanism' in contrast to 'Materialistic Humanism' that is in vogue.

Secularism and religions: Secularist ideologies that seek to create a conflict between science and religion, project an imaginary world that is quite different from the natural world that exists. Even if such a world were possible, nobody could live happily in it. All previous experiments of societies towards that end have failed dismally. India's ancient wisdom continues to oppose such a bleak secularist ideology in favour of a spiritual ideology. At some stage, world religions have to make a stand and offer a robust and coherent rebuttal to the secular lobby. Religious education provides an ideal vehicle to examine and evaluate such issues. Secularism is responsible for encouraging the 'me and mine' culture that is diametrically opposed to the altruistic teachings favoured by world religions. These strong secular attitudes are transmitted on the world scene through the medium of big businesses and flawed politics that continue to tolerate dramatic inequalities; where one quarter of the world population dies of over-indulgence while another quarter dies of malnutrition. It is a mistake to leave the resolution of such issues in the hands of professional economists with their fine-tuning skills. The best resolution of such heart-wrenching problems lies in the teachings of the prophets of religions who were the personifications of compassion.

Philosophy and religions: Philosophic or rational inquiry into religious beliefs is the most popular module in religious studies. Religious beliefs can be sustained as long as they promote transcendent truths but not irrational ones. There is an unfounded fear in the religious communities that religions somehow fail the test of rationality. Hinduism has always maintained that the best tool in the spiritual search is rationality. It is this determining faculty of the mind that has the power of removing the dross that shields our experience of the spirit. Addressing issues like suffering are considered valid philosophic prods that lead us not into believing or disbelieving in God but actually experiencing God. Some of the best responses to philosophic inquiries into religious beliefs lie in Hinduism but with regret we have to report that such responses have not been properly understood or portrayed by some of the key proponents like John Hick or Kim Knott.

Experiential religion: 'In olden times you were called an atheist if you did not believe in God, in modern times you will be called an atheist if you do not believe in yourself', this statement redefining atheism comes from a modern prophet of Hinduism. It shifts the emphasis of spirituality from being 'something out there' to something very close at hand. It shifts the emphasis of accepting religions as a matter of belief to something that has to be a matter of 'first hand experience'. If one person in the history of mankind claims to have experienced God and if God is a truly universal phenomenon, then the doorways have been opened up for the whole of mankind to experience this phenomenon first hand. 'Not believing in prophets but becoming one' is a dramatic shift of emphasis offered in Hinduism. This idea offers a refreshing change of attitude towards religions.

Present status of Hindu teaching in Schools: The discussion on the National framework of religious education offers us a welcome opportunity to interact constructively with the educational authorities to remove some serious misconceptions that are masquerading as Hinduism in schools. We have already made the Department of Education; the QCA; the ACCAC; the examining boards, as well as many Sacres, well aware of the issues that concern us. Just to illustrate this point let us offer one concrete example. Last week we were contacted by a Radio 4 producer for a programme called 'Beyond Belief'. The producer asked, "How does polytheism help Hindus understand God?" We responded by asking, "Who told you that Hinduism is polytheist?" Of course we knew the answer. The educational system in the UK is responsible for promoting such poor notions about Hinduism. We have interacted with over a hundred schools in the UK and in the process have come across a vast number of RE teachers. Almost all of them thought Hinduism to be a polytheist religion. Not one of them knew that it is in fact a 'pluralistic religion.' There is a vast difference between these two concepts. The first suggests a naïve paganistic religion that is happy to accept many all-mighty Gods. The second term expresses Hinduism as a very mature religion promoting the idea that the ultimate reality can be thought of and approached in a variety of different ways. This is not a statement of compromise but a matter of fact: As we are all different (as individuals or as religious groups) our concept and approach to the ultimate must necessarily be different. It is this subtle insight offered by Pluralistic Hinduism that holds the resolution to how many religions can co-exist with full dignity; unfortunately most RE teachers are oblivious to this fact.

1. Balance: For a balanced view of world religions, we recommend that if the first religion taught by a school (at any key stage) is Christianity, then the second religion should be a non-Abrahamic religion for a better grasp of world religions.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Greater involvement by Hindu academics at all levels of the consultation process; specifically with the examining boards to ensure that we have a coherent and comprehensive portrayal of Hinduism in schools.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Vetting resources on Hinduism: Many books written on Hinduism attempt to fit Hinduism into an Abrahamic straightjacket, thus producing a very grotesque version of Hinduism. We are in the process of producing resource material (covering all key stages) both on the internet and through publications. In the meantime we are happy to supply guide notes to teachers via the internet.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Seminar: In the near future we hope to offer a free one-day seminar for all Religious Education teachers in England and Wales at a major temple in London.
   

dilip lakhani