The Pittsburgh Venkateshvara temple is having an event on "Hinduism Past, Present and Future" in a few months. I have been asked to come and speak to the group. The title of my talk, an outline of which is being asked to be submitted several months in advance, will be "Hindu Megatrends." I need help from all of uswhat do we see happening in the future in Hinduism? What are the megatrends Hindus will face? E-mail megatrends@hindu.org to submit your ideas.

Unedited Transcript:

Shanmuganathaswami has been working with the Venkateshwara Temple in Pittsburgh for an activity that is occurring in June. They are having an educational event, coordinated by the Educational Committee of the Temple. The theme of the event is 'Hinduism Past, Present and Future'. They have invited me to be one of the speakers. They wanted to know the title

of the talk. That is planning ahead, right? "What is the title of the talk you are giving in June?" I don't even know the title of the talk I am giving on Sun One, let alone the title of the talk in June!! Then, they want a ten page or less write up on the talk, by April 10.

Thinking of a title, I thought, "Well, why not do something challenging ?" and choose as the title 'Hindu Megatrends'. Yeah, 'Hindu Megatrends' ... why not? So, we are asking for help, ideas. Help in the form of ideas, your thoughts on what significant megatrends are in Hinduism, over the next ten years, twenty years. What do we see happening? What does the future hold?

We are going to set up an e-mail, so we can get in e-mail ideas. Wondering if Arumugaswami will want to put out a request on HPI, requesting ideas. We will set up the e-mail account before we do that, something like megatrends@hindu.org. Set that up so that e-mails go to one location and don't get mixed up with anything else.

It is very interesting to think about the future and we want to get ideas from different people. Try to develop something nice as well as, encourage those that attend the event, at the event to express ideas and submit ideas afterwards too, what they think. Then, we can compile all of these ideas and create an article in 'Hinduism Today'. It would be a very interesting article, 'Hindu Megatrends'.

For example, to get you thinking about it, there will be a megatrend of Hindus outside of India marrying non-Hindus. That is what happens, it just takes a few generations. What happens in that instance? Is the non-Hindu spouse going to become a Hindu? Is the Hindu spouse going to become a non-Hindu? How is the Hindu community going to react to mixed marriages? Very interesting subject to think about, which is definitely going to occur. That always happens in a diaspora.

That is 'Hindu Megatrends'! You can get your think-tank turned on to bring some ideas and come up with a very interesting talk and an article for 'Hinduism Today'.