Prestigious Trinity College in Hartford (Connecticut, USA), whose earliest heritage was Episcopalian, now reportedly teaches from Vedas, Upanisads and Bhagavad-Gita in some of its courses. Courses offered by it also teach classical Sanskrit, traditional Hinduism, Hare Krishna, Hindu views on war and peace, etc.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, described Trinity’s action as “a step in the right direction”. Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued that religion was a complex element of our lives and religion comprised much more than one’s own individual experience or specific tradition. God, as a sign of God’s munificence and benevolence, constructively wished presence of different faiths.
Rajan Zed urged the schools/departments of religion and philosophy of major world universities to strengthen their Hinduism sections. Hinduism being the oldest religion with rich philosophical thought and a vast array of scriptures needed more exploration. Zed especially asked the Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Stanford, Columbia, McGill, Australian National, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Uppsala, and Utrecht universities to further enrich their Hinduism resources.
Founded in 1823, Trinity claims to be a highly selective liberal arts and sciences college spread over 100 green acres. Besides from all over USA, its students come from 49 countries and it offers over 900 courses in 38 majors. Its Raether Library has 1,000,000 books and its student/faculty ratio is 10:1. James F. Jones, Jr. is the President while Paul E. Raether is the Chairman of Trustees of Trinity, whose mission “…is to foster critical thinking, free the mind of parochialism and prejudice…” Parts of the Trinity seal, on which the motto reads “For Church and Country”, reflect the college’s Episcopal roots.
Christianity, of which Episcopalians are a denomination, is the largest religion in the world; while Hinduism is the third largest with about a billion adherents and moksh (liberation) as its ultimate goal.