Forum for Hindu Awakening's First Hinduism Summit (Hindu Dharma Sabha) in California Receives Overwhelmingly Positive Response

Powerful speeches, engaging presentations, resounding resolutions, ancient Sanskrit verses and exhibitions about Hindu Dharma marked the first Hinduism Summit in California.

San Francisco, CA, September 01, 2010 --(PR.com)-- The first Hinduism Summit (Hindu Dharma Sabha) in California concluded successfully on 28 August 2010 (Shravan Krushna Chaturthi 5112 as per the Hindu calendar). The Dharma Sabha was held by the Forum for Hindu Awakening (FHA) and the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, with the blessings of Hindu Saints worldwide, including His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar, His Holiness Pande Baba and Her Holiness Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma). It received an overwhelmingly positive response from the 125 attendees in person and 50 attendees online. The audience consisted of members of Hindu and spiritual organizations like Art of Living Foundation, Path to Anandam, India in Classrooms, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, Ekal Vidyalay and Hindu Charities for America, besides individuals interested in understanding, living, preserving or promoting Hinduism.

The Summit received generous support from the Sunnyvale Hindu community, who contributed towards the refreshments, technical support, publicity and other aspects of the Dharma Sabha. These inspiring contributions were commemorated in a beautiful, visual souvenir, published with the Hindu ritual of ‘prakaashan’ at the Summit. The souvenir illustrated the unique science underlying Hindu practices and highlighted issues such as denigration and persecution of Hindus.

The audience listened raptly as the speakers brought to attention various Hindu issues and presented solutions. The first speaker Shri. Rajan Zed, a Hindu and interfaith leader, spoke on maintaining a Hindu identity in America and urged the Hindus in America to be ambassadors of Hinduism by educating others about Hinduism. “To be an ambassador, one needs to have at least basic knowledge of Hinduism,” he said and shared different, simple ways in which that can be done.

Shri. Nilesh Shirodkar, an avid reader and proponent of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti website, spoke on ‘Know denigration and preserve Hinduism’. Shri. Shirodkar spoke about what is Hinduism (Dharma) and how the denigration of Dharma today has resulted in the deteriorating condition of society. Shri. Shirodkar shared things that anyone can do towards stopping denigration, things within our reach, such as protesting some denigration we come across, peacefully, but surely.

The next speaker, Shri. Amey Ranade, a volunteer of the Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SSRF), illustrated SSRF’s research that shows the spiritual dimension factors underlying Hinduism concepts and Hindu issues. The SSRF video demonstrated the power of Saints and the need for Their blessings for the success of in any venture.

The next speaker, Dr. Mihir Meghani, co-founder of Hindu American Foundation, showed an enlightening video about the need for advocacy of Hinduism, to ensure that the voice of the Hindu community is heard by public policy makers. His speech inspired the audience while citing practical examples that each Hindu or well wisher of the Hindu community can follow in daily life.

Shri. Easan Katir, the next speaker, brought to attention the increasing atrocities on Hindu communities worldwide, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kashmir. He briefly shared his spiritual journey in Hinduism under the guidance of his Guru. He concluded that the best way to overcome persecution of the Hindu community is to become strong Hindus ourselves, by awakening to the principles of Hinduism, practicing them through regular spiritual practice to increase our spiritual capacity, and stand united with other Hindus. Shri. Katir’s speech was at once thought provoking and reassuring in the solutions it provided.

The final speaker, Smt. Bhavna Shinde has been studying and practicing the principles of Spirituality and Hinduism for the past 10 years. Her speech focused the audience on the root causes of the plight of the Hindu community today, namely, the lack of Hinduism education among Hindus and not considering the subtle spiritual dimension in the efforts to preserve and promote Hindu Dharma. She illustrated the unique science underlying Hinduism concepts and practices through practical examples like applying vermilion to the forehead and using a ghee lamp, and highlighted the Forum for Hindu Awakening’s growing youth membership as an example of the effect of sharing this unique spiritual science of Hinduism.

The Dharma Sabha concluded with the unanimous passing of various resolutions (some of them will be submitted to our policy makers) to understand, live and preserve Hinduism. Almost all of the attendees signed the resolutions passed at the Dharma Sabha, and left their contact information to work together for Hinduism.

Forum for Hindu Awakening (FHA) and Sunnyvale Hindu Temple are non-profit, tax exempt organisations, dedicated to promoting Hinduism education and preserving Hindu practices.

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