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BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, June 06, 2004: The first question most people ask the tall, blond, blue-eyed Hindu Swami Akhilananda from Texas is how he got to be a Hindu swami, as most seem to be from India. During a recent visit to the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Birmingham, Alabama, he wore sandals, beads, a saffron robe and a “tilak,” the vertical red streak on his forehead. “I was raised as a Hindu,” he said. “Whatever you can ask, there’s always an answer in Hinduism.” His father, a carpenter, studied Hinduism and helped construct one of the largest Hindu temples in the United States – the Barsana Dham temple in Austin, Texas. Swami’s parents now live at an ashram in India. Steeped in the history and scriptures of Hinduism, but raised in Texas, he has emerged as an eloquent spokesman for the ancient religion to people who are not of Indian descent. “I preach at some churches, mostly Unitarian or Unity,” he said. He spent a week in Birmingham for a series of lectures on “How to Reach God.” Roebuck and Pelham temples serve more than 400 Hindu families in the Birmingham area. The resident Hindu priest conducts daily rituals of ceremonially waking, “feeding” and bathing the gods. “We are very devoted to our culture,” said Andra Soni, who was born in India and moved to Birmingham in 1981. “This place here is our heritage link between us and our home country,” said Anil Agawal, who left India at age nine. Hindus perform an aarti, a ceremony of lights, waving a silver plate with oil lamps in front of the statue. Chanting and meditating on the various names of the deity help to get closer to God, and souls have a chance to progress toward unity with God – known as Moksha – through reincarnation. Otherwise, each person keeps being reborn. “If you know God absolutely, then you’re free of the huge, unending cycle,” the swami said.

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