Hallowed be thy Name

Today it was reported the Greens want to remove the Lord's Prayer from the opening of Parliament and replace it with a "secular opening statement". Greens Senator Richard Di Natale believes its present status excludes non-Christians:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/politics-news/greens-want-the-lords-prayer-dumped-from-federal-parliament-sittings/story-fn59nqld-1226801609325

On face value, I must be one of those allegedly excluded people Senator Di Natale is so concerned about. As a Hindu immigrant, I would probably blend nicely into his imagined fabric of a 'multicultural Australia' so threatened by the Lord's Prayer in Parliament. So it may interest the good Senator to know my opinion on the subject.

As a theist (albeit of a very different kind to a Christian), I value the invocation of a higher being and purpose at the opening of Parliament. Even though it probably has no effect, it is a good gesture that politicians at least pretend to be guided by an interest greater than self-interest. If only for a minute, it is a pleasant change to see them bow their heads to a power higher than a factional powerbroker, or an opinion poll. 

Since Australia has always been and continues to be a largely Christian country, the Lord's Prayer is the logical choice for the prayer to be said. It reflects not only the current demographic makeup but also the country's heritage. It echoes the Constitution, which opens with "Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, ... humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God..."

Fundamental philosophical differences notwithstanding, there is nothing in the Lord's Prayer that a Hindu, or for that matter, a believer of any religion, should find objectionable. There isn't even a mention of Jesus, whose status is a bone of contention amongst the Abrahamic religions.

As a quick study in comparative religion, I go through every line of the Lord's Prayer below to describe how a Hindu could read the Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father" 
Hindu literature generally uses the phrase paramapita (supreme father) to refer to Brahma, the deity of creation, who is presided over by Vishnu, the Ultimate God (i.e. the God with the capital G). Nonetheless, the depiction of God as a heavenly father would be familiar to Hindus and other theists, as it is an image commonly used at the earlier stages of religious understanding. 

"Which art in heaven,"  
Well, also in heaven. Hindus believe God is omnipresent, which would imply He is everywhere, of which heaven would be a small subset. I thus find this a limiting turn of phrase, but not an objectionable one.

"Hallowed be thy Name"
Amen! Theists of all faiths should unite in making this prayer in our increasingly godless and sceptical society.

"Thy kingdom come"
Like their Christian brethren, Hindus are also awaiting their day of redemption, when divine rule will be restored. They look back to Rama-Rajya (rule of God when He descended as the avatar Rama), and look forward to His next avatar as Kalki, who will destroy evil from the earth and usher in a new age of virtue. 

"Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven."
Redundant, but cute. This is the will of God we're talking about. It will be done, not only in heaven and on earth, but everywhere. That is the very definition of God being omnipotent. If you believe God is omnipotent (which Christians claim to), it is quite pointless to pray for His will to be done, in earth or anywhere else. 

Perhaps a more meaningful prayer (or interpretation) would be to pray that we have the humility and strength to accept whatever His will is, even if we fail to understand it, as we usually do. 

Nonetheless, the sentiment is one of submission to God's will. It is cute in a way, to use your limited mental resources to pray for God's will to eventuate.

As it stands, this is line philosophically redundant, but the sentiment behind it is encouraging. 

This is where the philosophical differences end, and from which point on the prayer could just easily be a Hindu one. Or for that matter, of any meaningful religion.

"Give us this day our daily bread."
This reminds us that our daily bread, and life itself, is a daily blessing not to be taken for granted.

"And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us."

The Hindu will be in complete agreement. This is not merely a prayer of penance, or a call to charity. It is also a reminder of the pithy, universal summary of morality: to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This is a universal philosophy which would resonate with theists of all religions, as well as atheists with a sense of morality. 

"And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

All meaningful religions seek to resist the temptation to commit evil, and to tread on the narrow path of righteousness (or the path of dharma, in Eastern religions). Hinduism shares the belief that God is the source of all power and glory. It goes even further, teaching that that is also the essence of God: 

"I am the intelligence of the intelligent, the glory of the glorious, the ascetism of the ascetics, the strength of the strong" - Bhagavad Gita 7:10-11

So it can be said that the Lord's Prayer is a simple and broadly universal prayer. Much of it resonates with Hinduism (and probably other religions), and none of it is offensive to or excludes any religion. 

Now some Christian fundamentalists will disagree, and argue that this prayer is indeed meant to exclude unrepentant sinners like me. Hence, they will for once in their life agree with the Greens. They will also claim I have no right to compare the true 'Christian God' with my 'false god', and that doing so is blasphemy. 

My answer to that is there is only one God. We differ strongly on our understanding of the nature of God, but that's all it is - our understanding. Hindus believe God is infinite, so vast and boundless that He is essentially unknowable to our limited human intellect. Any man who believes he knows everything about God is a fool. 

When a child prays to God, his understanding of God is incomplete. Yet we do not say children pray to a 'false god'. As we develop our spirituality, our understanding merely becomes less incomplete. But to think that we have fully understood God only reveals the depths of our ignorance, and our ignorance of our ignorance. It devalues God to say you know all there is to know about Him. It would be as if a musician claimed he had discovered and composed everything there was to know and create in music. No true artist ever claims to have reached perfection. The better they get, they discover newer and greater depths they never knew of before. So it is with spirituality.