Who: Soundaraya Sitaram
Position: Master’s student of Biomedical Engineering
Faith: Hindu (Brahman)
‘I’m a Brahman Hindu. For me personally, Hinduism is a way of life, rather than just a religion. In my opinion, it was meant to bring discipline into society. It is more than faith, it provides rules you should follow.’
Hindu festivals
‘I was born a Hindu. My parents and family practice Hinduism. We have always gone to temples and kept up all the traditions typical for our region and religion. There are many Hindu festivals – such as Diwali, Holi or Navaratri -, most of them focused on remembering gods and goddesses, celebrating that good defeats evil. However, India is very big and each region celebrates the festivals a bit differently.’
‘I really like to celebrate my Hindu festivals. It is something you grow up with, something you do with your family - it is a tradition close to my heart. I would like to teach my children about our festivals, but I would never force the faith on them, because I wasn’t forced into it either. And if I marry someone who isn’t a Brahman, we can celebrate his festivals also.’
Ganesha
‘I believe in heaven and hell. I also believe in karma, meaning that bad deeds will come back to you in this life, but I personally don’t believe in reincarnation. I worship Hindu gods and goddesses. My favorite one is the elephant god Ganesha. For me he is a welcoming god that brings happiness and strength. He is a well-wisher, someone who is always by my side. I have a small idol of him at home and I say a short prayer every morning before work. Here in the Netherlands, I don’t go to a temple very often, because they are all far away, but in India I used to go to a temple every other week.’
‘I don’t consider myself a deeply religious person, so I don’t have any big daily rituals related to my faith. However, I do not eat any meat because of my faith. I’ve always been a vegetarian as Brahmans are supposed to be and I have never thought about changing that.’
‘Christmas reminds me of Hindu festivals’
‘Christmas is something new for me. I don’t celebrate it, but I think the Christmas period is very cute and sweet and fun for kids. I also celebrated Sinterklaas for the first time this week and the festivities reminded me of our own festivals. If you think about it, the traditions are not that different – everyone celebrates the triumph of good over evil.’
