Women in Hinduism: Ms. Gita Kar

Hindu Gita Kar is the Raja Yoga facilitator at “Light Meditation Center” and belongs to the Bihar School of Yoga tradition (Mungyr, India.) Raised in India and educated by Catholic nuns until university years, Gita is quite knowledgeable about Christianity. She attributes the memorization of lengthy Bible passages as preparing her for her English Literature major and her career as a teacher.

Gita uses mantras (and includes the Our Father and Hail Mary as mantras) in centering herself for daily meditation. She is not a frequent temple goer but uses meditation as a spiritual practice. She describes her Hindu spirituality as a personal matter between the individual and God. The one God has many loving aspects and each of the aspects has the name of a god or goddess. Gita remembers fondly the rituals she learned from the nuns and from her family. Most Hindu families have an altar in their home and daily she placed food for the gods at the altar. She is pleased that her grandchildren are learning rituals in their Catholic school in the US today.

Gita shared her faith through a description of the pilgrimage she made to the Himalayan Mountains with the ashes of her deceased mother, a devout Hindu, who had come to the US to live with her. It was a journey to the holiest of places, the sources of 6 rivers, among them the Ganges. She described rivers as “mothers.” At the source she immersed the ashes along with photos on dissolvable paper of her mother, her family and herself. At the moment of releasing her own photo, “of letting go” she felt a great sense of freedom.

Susan Sell has served many roles at SJA including reader, host and a member of the Pastoral Council. Susan is also a member of SJA's Sister Parish Committee, St. Joan's Isaiah Core Team, SJA's liason person to SWING as well as Chairperson of WomenSpirit. Susan can be reached at susanmsell@hot.mail.com.

Gita used the metaphor of the pilgrimage to share her Hindu faith journey: the detailed preparation for the trip, the training for the arduous hiking in the mountains, the generosity and hospitality of the people she encountered, the beauty of The Valley of the Flood and The Valley of the Flowers, the joy and freedom of “letting go.” She discovered she had been looking in the wrong place for answers. She had looked on the outside while the answers for her were within.