# Examining Faith through a Different Lens February 01, 2022 ![Swami Harinamananda and Sadhak Vandan in the courtyard of the Center for the Study of World Religions. / Photo: Justin Knight](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds2/files/swami-vandan-monastics-news-600x400.jpg?itok=nsB44U8b) Swami Harinamananda and Sadhak Vandan in the courtyard of the Center for the Study of World Religions. / Photo: Justin Knight *Hindu monastics at Harvard Divinity have been shaped by experiences both inside and outside of the classroom.* If you ask Harvard Divinity School’s Swami Harinamananda which piece of art has had the biggest impact on his life, he will most likely mention the television miniseries “Roots: The Saga of an American Family.” The miniseries is an adaptation of the novel by Alex Haley, who is famously quoted as having said, “In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage—to know who we are and where we have come from.” For Harinamananda, a Los Angeles-born Indian, these words hit home. “Growing up, I was caught between two cultures—the Indian culture and the American culture,” Harinamananda says. At home, he practiced Hindu customs and traditions, but at school, he was often the only Indian in those spaces. Because of this clash between his familial culture and the culture of his environment, the young Harinamananda found himself constantly searching for his identity, who he was, and where he *truly* belonged. After watching “Roots,” Harinamananda decided to go to India to get the answers to these questions. “Basically, my cultural search led me to my spiritual search,” he quips. Harinamananda would later return to the United States to pursue his master’s degree at the University of California, Davis. It was during that period that he felt a strong inclination to join the monastery. But before he did, his guru—Swami Swahananda—told him to first go and serve India for a year. He ended up staying there for 14 months total, learning Indian philosophy at the Institute of Culture in Kolkata for six months, then working in the surrounding villages for the remaining nine months. Today, Harinamananda is a monk of the Ramakrishna Monastery and was the resident minister of the Vedanta temple in San Diego prior to his joining the Hindu Monastic Fellowship Program sponsored by Harvard Divinity School. ![Swami Harinamananda and Sadhak Vandan](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/hds2/files/swami-inline-news-700.jpg?itok=irNujSf7) *Swami Harinamananda and Sadhak Vandan are Nagral Fellows at Harvard Divinity School for 2021-22. / Photo: Justin Knight* According to [Professor Francis X. Clooney, S. J.](https://hds.harvard.edu/people/francis-x-clooney), Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology, HDS’s interfaith identity is ripe for the deeper and broader study of Hindu traditions­—both theoretically and in practice. Clooney, along with other professors such as [Charles Hallisey](https://hds.harvard.edu/people/charles-hallisey), Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures, and the late Anne Monius, have helped shaped these monastic visits over the course of the last few years. “The program which brings Hindu monastics to HDS builds on a long history of the study of Hinduism and South Asia at Harvard, but it is also new, brought to life and energized by the generous support of Vibhu and Ajit Nagral,” Clooney explains. “Bringing three monastic visitors to campus in 2019-20 was a wonderful start. And then, after the difficult gap year of 2020-21, we are again happy this year to have two wonderful monastics with us, Swami Harinamananda and Sadhak Vandan. We are establishing a tradition, a welcome one, and hope that it has a long future here.” For Sadhak Vandan, the second monk in the program, his journey to Harvard was a little different. Vandan was born and raised in the western part of India, hailing from the state of Gujarat. It was there that he learned that his application was successful and that he would be joining Harvard as a Nagral Fellow for 2021-22. His very first international flight was the one that would bring him to Cambridge. He humorously comments that even though he was really hoping for a cultural shock, so far, he has not experienced anything that has been astonishing or shocking. Vandan has been a student of Sanskrit for a large part of his life, so his family initially did not really see any connection between Sanskrit and Harvard. “But when all the pieces started falling in place, it was a wonderful moment,” he explains gleefully. "Everyone was so excited." Even though Vandan himself had some idea of what his studies would be like, he wasn’t certain of how well his Sanskrit background would flourish at HDS. But after meeting classmates and professors, and after a couple classes later, he testifies of the great intellectual connections he has made in his scholarship. He specifically highlights the course, “Hinduism through the Lens of Lived Religion,” taught by Sravana Borkataky-Varma, Lecturer on Hindu Traditions, as one of the classes from which he has deeply benefitted. “I am a practicing Hindu, and I have been Hindu all my life. But wow, that class was such an eye-opening experience, because there is so much more to Hinduism than I could have imagined. And well, that’s the gift of HDS. It is opening up my mind and perspective.” Vandan has also relished the interreligious and interfaith dialogue he’s experienced at HDS, something to which Swami Harinamananda also relates. ![In HDS's Swartz Hall, Sadhak Vandan (center), meets in the new Multifaith Space with student Minahil Mead (left) and student and Buddhist monk Mahayaye Vineetha](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/hds2/files/vandan-multifaith-chapel-news-700x425.jpg?itok=mt8Uaq1T) *In HDS's Swartz Hall, Sadhak Vandan (center), meets in the new Multifaith Space with student Minahil Mead (left) and student and Buddhist monk Mahayaye Vineetha. / Photo: Kris Snibbe, Harvard Staff Photographer* Explaining that he, too, has had that opportunity to look at his faith through a different lens, Harinamananda says that: “One of the things that has surprised me the most is how far students will go out of their way to be inclusive of others.” Adding that because inclusivity is a value that aligns with his spirituality, the inclusivity of the Harvard Divinity community has helped him feel even more at home. The friendliness that permeates even the classroom has been a great joy to him, he says, and he expresses that he is often taken aback when even professors share their own experiences and are open with their vulnerabilities and mistakes. As a member of a monastic order, Harinamananda comes from a more hierarchical system, so he has appreciated operating within a more egalitarian system, something to which he admits he is not accustomed. At this point in the academic year, the monastics are already beginning to think of completing the program and going back to serve their respective communities again. As they reflect upon their time at HDS, they are unanimous and unwavering in their recommendation that other Hindu monastics interested in this opportunity should pursue it. However, Harinamananda emphasizes that they should come with a beginner's mind. “In Buddhism, they call it an empty mind,” he says. “I have found that even though you first come in with prior background and knowledge, it is good to be receptive right from the beginning and to absorb as much as you can from any new frameworks.” The monastics both agree that they have been shaped just as much outside of the classroom as they have within it. Vandan excitedly shares that he has enjoyed watching football games, attending concerts and the ballet, and even witnessing the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform live. Speaking about the intersections between art and spirituality, he mentions that these experiences have broadened the horizons of his own view of spirituality. “It is helping me understand my own tradition by helping me to link these different experiences to my own practice and teachings and reaffirming my way of seeing,” he says. ![Sadhak Vandan, a Hindu monastic and Divinity School student, celebrates Diwali at dusk outside Swartz Hall.](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/hds2/files/vandan-diwali-news-700x425.jpg?itok=uKkIdexb) *Sadhak Vandan, a Hindu monastic and Divinity School student, celebrates Diwali at dusk outside Swartz Hall. The festival of lights is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists. / Photo: Kris Snibbe, Harvard Staff Photographer* It is perhaps this broad array of adventures that inspired Vandan, who is also the current president of the HDS Hindu Group, to mobilize members in planning a monumental Diwali event. In November 2021, Hindu students transformed HDS’s Williams Chapel into a beautiful Festival of Lights celebration. The event was a success, with over 70 students belonging to different faiths and spiritual identities showing up and getting involved. Of the 70 attendees to the celebration, Vandan says only a handful were Hindu. Yet it is precisely this example of interfaith and interreligious camaraderie that the monastics say they will take with them after their time at HDS. “I have found it interesting to think about how different religions think about similar questions,” Vandan explains. “Thinking about similarities and differences can be a chance to learn about different traditions in a deeper way, but also to talk with other people and grow from those conversations. That, I am planning to keep with me.” —*written by Suzannah Omonuk, HDS correspondent* See also:- [ Religious Literacy ](/discover-stories-about/religious-literacy) - [ Student Activities and Interviews ](/discover-stories-about/student-activities-and-interviews) - [ Hinduism ](/featured-topics/hinduism)