INDIANA--Less than one percent of Indiana County's population has moved here from abroad, and with them, they brought their customs, their cultures, and many times, their religions.
Indiana County is a predominantly Christian community, but it is sprinkled with other religious sects, such as Buddhists, Muslim and Hindus.
The Sonis--Ramesh and Bina and their two children, Charishma, 14, and Vrenda, 9, are practicing Hindus. Ramesh and Bina moved to the United States in 1987 and have connected with other Hindus in the Indiana area.
But many non-Christian religious practitioners are not transplants from other countries, but Americans who simply discovered an affinity to a different religion.
That was the case with Eleanor Mannikka, 63, assistant chair of the art department at IUP.
Mannikka has been a practicing Buddhist for 27 years now--it wasn't until she was 36 years old that she took on a serious interest.
A Tibetan abbot, or teacher, had visited Ann Arbor to give an introduction to Buddhist practices. Shortly after that, a Buddhist center opened there.
Karma kagyu is the order of Tibetan Buddhists to which Mannikka belongs.
She explained, within the Tibetan monasteries, "You find yourself in a particular lineage, and you find yourself staying with that particular lineage."
So within the karma Kagyu, she is also associated with both her abbot, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, and the monastery in upstate New York.
Growing up, Mannikka's parents were atheists, "So they left me alone with my interests," she said.
"Several things began to happen to me when I was just turning 13, and into my 17th year. I had a series of visions and unusual occurrences that nobody could explain."
She said she grew up in a primarily white, Baptist community, "so I had no one to turn to," she said.
"At the same time these things began to happen, I began to develop an interest in Buddhism and began to try to find out what I could."
Mannikka recalled one instance that drew her closer to the Buddhist beliefs, though she didn't realize it at the time.
When she was 14 years old, Mannikka came out of sleep one night and felt two heartbeats. Thinking her brother had climbed into bed with her, she felt at the side of her bed, but no one was there.
She suddenly realized that it was her own heart she feeling--she had gone into ventricular fibrillation, a very fast beating of the heart. "I opened one eye and looked at my bedroom door," she recalled. "and all of a sudden, I was gone.
"In that one instance, several things happened at once. First of all, I was in a pitch-black void that was comparable to being in outerspace, but with no stars. It was like outerspace because it did not end anywhere.
"The next thing I noticed was that I was moving through the void in a definitely straight direction."
Mannikka believes that she actually left her physical body through the eye she had open, looking at her bedroom door, because that was direction she seemed to be moving. According to Tibetan beliefs, a soul departs from the body through an orifice.
"What I noticed about the void was that it was peaceful and blissful beyond what anyone can describe," she said. "It permeated everything. There are no words and there never have been any words to describe it. The minute I was there, I didn't want to leave."
But then things began to change slightly, for the worse, Mannikka noted.
"As I was moving along, my thoughts started to disappear," she said. "I realized that my thinking was going and that pretty soon, I would have no thoughts at all, and I became frightened.
"It was obvious to me that I was dead. So when my thoughts began to disappear...I only had my mind. I would be annihilated. I would totally cease to exist. I knew that if I continued to move further, I would never be able to come back.
"I thought about my parents, my brother and friends, and I thought, I can't leave them right now. They need me. Then the movement stopped, and I began to feel a pull backwards, very quickly. And all of a sudden, I was back in my bed, one eye open, and my heart was beating normal."
At 14 years old, Mannikka had no idea what had just happened to her, no way to explain it. She went to her physician, had an EKG, and nothing at all was wrong with her heart. She talked with priests and pastors, and confided in just one friend of her experience.
"I did not have it explained to me until I met the Tibetan abbot who was my teacher," Mannikka said, "when I was 36."
The Tibetan Buddhists even had a name for Mannikka's experience--the "clear light state."
Mannikka's experience with death, paired with other strange occurrences throughout her teenage years, was what attracted her to Tibetan Buddhism, she said, "because they were the only ones who could understand what had happened to me."
A major aspect of the Buddhist religion is the belief in karma and reincarnation. Once the body dies, the mind lets go of its attachment and moves on, she said.
Mannikka often retreats to a monastery in upstate New York, in Woodstock.
She left earlier in the week for a three-week retreat there, "to meditate and reflect."
At the monastery, there are no phones, no cell phones, no television. "You don't want to know about the outside world," she said.
Mannikka and her daughters--both practicing Buddhists--have agreed that they will celebrate the Christmas holiday, but instead of giving each other gifts, they will give a donation to charity.
"I don't want any more material things," Mannikka said. "I feel I have enough."
She said celebrating the Christmas holiday is more of a cultural tradition than a religious one for her.
"It's a cultural festival," she said. "It's bright, it's shiny. I like the Santa Clauses, the lights, the candles, everything. I know it comes a Christian background, but it's a very cheerful time. I'm American. I'm here, this is what we do."
She has never been to Tibet, but has traveled to Cambodia, where she completed extensive research for a book she had published, Angkor Wat, an ancient Hindu temple there.
Mannikka holds a meditation group at her home on Wednesday evenings. A second group meets sporadically on Sundays, she added.
"Meditation is going to be the next big wave in the United States, simply because it's so good for you," she said.
"If it didn't have benefits, people wouldn't do it."
Like Mannikka, the Sonis still celebrate the Christmas holiday, mostly for the sake of their children, Bina Soni said.
"All of the schools celebrate Christmas," she said, noting that her family puts up Christmas tree, exchanges gifts, and decorates for the holiday. "Even though we don't have an attachment to these festivals, the whole idea is so we continue to be open-minded."
The Sonis came to the United States from India in 1987, and lived in Texas for one year until Ramesh Soni was offered a professor position at IUP.
Bina Soni also had a professional background in education--she received her bachelor degree in education while in India, as well as her certificate for secondary school teaching.
She grew up in the city of Calcutta, just a mile away from where Mother Teresa had her ashram, although she never had the opportunity to meet or visit her.
Soni has always made her religion a top priority in life.
"I've always been interested in religion," Soni said. "I was told all of the stories as a small child," she said, adding that many stories about the Hindu gods and goddesses had been made into comic book form to better capture the interest of children.
Most Hindus study from the text Holy Bhaghavat Gheeta.
"It has the essence of all the scriptures," Soni noted.
Soni said her family and other practicing Hindus hold a weekly religion class, since there are no Hindu temples nearby for them to attend on a regular basis.
"We have been following the text with a group of people for almost four years now," she noted. The children also have a class once a week, every Sunday, held the past three years.
A nearby friend, Merrily Duncan, harbors a great interest in the Indian culture and religion, and on her many trips to India, she has attended Hindu gatherings.
Duncan has become particularly interested in a certain Hindu guru and his ashram, or followers.
A guru, Duncan noted, is a holy teacher who has given himself to a holy way of life, much like the Catholic monks. Only gurus actually have disciples of their own--the ashram.
"He leads them and teaches them his path to being at hone with the universal spirit," Duncan said.
An ashram shouldn't be confused with the congregations of Christian churches.
"Hinduism is not a congregational religion," she said. "At a temple, you won't see pews," but you will see carpets where people can sit to worship.
She said there is a special area at the front of the church where all who enter take off their shoes. "We do not take shoes into the temple," Soni said. "You want it clean. It's considered disrespectful to have your shoes or slippers on in front of God."
The carpets are there for the same reason. "We also would not sit in a chair in front of God," she noted.
Duncan does not actually practice the Hindu religion, she merely has developed an interest in it, and has studied it extensively.
"I practice the culture," she said. "I've tried to adapt the lifestyle that I lived with my host family in India. "I consider myself a part of the Indian community."
There are three main principles of the Hindu religion, Soni said: God is everywhere, God is in everyone, and God is in everything.
Hindus, like Buddhists, believe in the reincarnation of the soul. As Soni explained it, "The soul has to be born over and over again until it's ready to unite with the Supreme God. That level of spirituality cannot be achieved in one lifetime.
"It's like our birth on Earth is like a classroom lesson. This world is a temporary place."
But she said, every time a person is reborn, they don't start from scratch, so to speak. They bring with them things they've learned in past lives.
"It's as if our physical life is like a piece of clothing for our soul," Soni pointed out. "And if it gets old or torn, the soul removes it.
A person's reincarnate life is also dictated by karma, Hindus say.
"If you have done good in this lifetime, you will have good karma in your next life," Soni said. "It's as if we have a blueprint to follow in our lifetime. You are misguided when you are not in touch with the spirituality."
Soni reiterated the main principle of her religion: "One of the main philosophies of Hinduism is that God is everywhere, in every living being."
In the Hindu religion, there is one Supreme God and hundreds of lesser gods and goddesses. Soni related these gods and goddesses to the Christian belief of archangels.
Under the Supreme God are three main gods: Brahma, god of creation and wisdom; Vishnu, god of preservation; and Shiva, god of destruction. The wives of these three gods are considered to be goddesses: Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, is the goddess of knowledge; Lakshimi, wife of Vishnu, is the goddess of wealth; and Parvati, wife of Shiva, is the goddess of power.
Their sons and daughters are also considered deities: in fact, one of the better-known Hindu gods, Ganesh, in elephant form, is a son of Parvati and Shiva.
Soni pointed out that all of this information is simply an outline of the Hindu religion--just skimming the surface. "Hinduism is very elaborate," she said.
There are several similarities between Hinduism and Christianity, Soni said. Many Hindu stories of gods and goddesses are similar to stories that can be found in the Bible. Also, Hindus believe that Jesus Christ was a man who walked the Earth.
"Jesus Christ is viewed as a very enlightened soul in Hinduism," Soni remarked. "He is like a guru, so He is acknowledged."
"Because God is in everyone, different religions are just different paths to reach the same goal," Soni said.
Unlike Christians, though, Hindus believe that "there is not just one Son of God, but that we are all sons and daughters of God."
"There are commonalities in all religions. All religions teach us to live a model life, to be good to each other."
"Whatever you are doing in the world, offer it to God first, and it will be acceptable," Soni said.
Hinduism is one of the oldest living religions in the world, and is unique among other world religions in that it had no single founder, but grew over a period of 4,000 years in syncretism with the religious and cultural movements of the Indian subcontinent.
The most sacred Hindu text is the Veda, which comprises the liturgy and interpretation of the sacrifice.
Hinduism accepts the doctrine of karma, meaning an individual reaps the results of his good and bad actions through a series of lifetimes. Also universally accepted in Hinduism is the goal of moksha or mukti, which is the liberation from suffering and from the compulsion to rebirth, attainable through elimination of passions and through knowledge of reality, and, finally union with God.
Moral ideals in Hinduism include non-violence, truthfulness, friendship, compassion, fortitude, self-control, purity and generosity.
According to historians, the origin of Hinduism dates back more than 5,000 years. The word "Hindu" is derived from the name of River Indus, which flows through northern India.
It is generally believed that the basic tenets of Hinduism were brought to India by the Aryans who settled along the banks of the Indus river about 2000 BC. Hinduism is commonly thought to be the oldest religion in the history of human civilization.
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy that was founded in India circa 525 by Siddhartha Gautama, otherwise known as the Buddha.
Buddhism, practiced by more than 300 million worldwide, is divided into two main schools: the Theravada, or Hinayana, in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahayana in China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. A third school, the Vajrayana, has a long tradition in Tibet and Japan.
Though founded in India, Buddhism are scarcely found there today. Both meditation and observance of moral precepts are the foundation of Buddhist practice, even from the beginning.
Any person who has developed all positive qualities and eliminated all negative qualities can be considered a Buddha. A Buddha was an ordinary human before becoming enlightened.
But Buddhism was originated by one Buddha, Shakyamuni, or Gautama Buddha, who lived about 2,500 years ago in India.
A Buddha is different from "God" in the Christian-Judeo-Islamic sense, in that a Buddha is not the creator of the universe, is not omnipotent, although he is considered omniscient (all-knowing), and because the state of Buddhahood can be reached by every living being, accomplished not just in one lifetime, but many lives.
