Muslims and Hindus

Today's task is to get ready some Hindu artefacts for a Muslim friend to use as teaching aids in a Muslim school. If that has made you blink, I am glad.
Hindus believe in one God, Brahma, who cannot be described. God is responsible for life in all its aspects. Hindus picture God through attributes. God is all wise, the solver of problems, the helper, the preserver, the rewarder of good deeds, the merciful, the just. Nothing in this is very different from Muslim beliefs.
Because Hinduism developed at a time when the common people were illiterate, teachings were given in pictorial language, and behind the stories were folk tales. These are symbolic and not to be taken literally as history. To say God is all wise, the picture is of the goddess Saraswati. Both male and female pictures of God are used to demonstrate that God is not one or the other. I asked some 8 year old what wise means, before discussing Saraswati. I will give you one girl's response later. After this discussion, they told me what the Saraswati picture means: she holds a book, to show she is full of knowledge; she holds a sitar, to show that she appreciates music and the arts; she holds a rosary to represent spirituality. She wears a crown, to suggest wisdom is queen, and she rides a swan to suggest grace and beauty. The water is calm, showing that wisdom creates peace. They have understood how to unpack a symbol.
Next I am giving her Lakshmi. The artifact is a wooden lotus bud which opens to reveal a tiny carving of the goddess. Lakshmi represents success and is the patron goddess of shopkeepers and business folk when stocking up and planning their new year. She stands on a lotus, calm on turbulant waters. The lotus is a thing of beauty with roots in the mud and filth, showing how a hostile world can be transformed. Success comes from diligence, hard work and good relationships - it is not magically dispensed from the skies. The new year is a time of healing, paying off debts and a reminder to make sure that bad blood does not hinder prosperity. In other words, we create our own success; and equally we create our own failures.
Next she will have Ganesh, the solver of problems and remover of obstacles. The children can talk about the nature of problems and obstacles and how they are tackled. Ganesh encourages us to draw on inner strengths to find solutions. Again, no magic solutions from above. The problem might be large and require great effort; or it might be small and subtle. The children can discuss examples of these and what might be needed to sort them out. And now the picture (or statuette). The greatest tool in India to remove physical obstacles is the elephant, so Ganesh has an elephants head. Myths have spun various stories to explain the family relationships which caused this, but this is beyond the symbol. If we throw weight against the obstacle, we need the tools - the community, the equipment. Ganesh carries a cake or breadbun, suggesting friends who eat together; a goad, suggesting that great effort will be required; and a rosary, indicating that the effort will be ethical and reflective. He has a broken tusk, as risks are needed. His 'steed' is a little mouse, telling us not to ignore subtle solutions - why knock a wall down when you can go through a little chink?
So religious language is symbolic language. Our solutions to problems, and our way to prosperity and wisdom, are inside us. We should not expect miracles. We have to summon up our inner strengths, be thoughtful, reflective, ethical, work in community determined to have good relationships. If we can achieve that, the world will begin to change.
Our friend will also receive Rama and Krishna figurines, but they are a longer story!