Arts & Culture
Hindu guru finds his way to Stevens Point
The Pointer
skrez305@uwsp.edu
It is not every day that University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students have the opportunity to chat with a Hindu guru.
On Tuesday, Nov. 18, all UW-SP students were able to attend a presentation by a Hindu guru named Aiya, also known as Sri Chaitanyananda.
The next day students in Professor Corinne Dempsey’s Asian religions class were invited to her home to take part in a dinner with Indian food and lively conversation with Aiya.
According to Aiya, he never chose to be a guru. It is just something that he was meant to do. Dempsey interjected and said, “It’s a team effort.”
This that there have to be people that want to follow Aiya’s Hindu teachings along with his willingness to teach people in a guru/student relationship.
A Sri Lankan Tamil, Aiya now runs a temple in just outside of Rochester, New York. Dempsey visited and worked with the temple to write “The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York” Through this, she worked with and got to know Aiya.
Now every time Dempsey offers Asian Religions as a class, the students learn about Hinduism and Aiya comes to Stevens Point for a dinner with the students.
This visit was his fifth year traveling to Stevens Point and the campus.
“It’s a beautiful place to end,” he said.
Elizabeth Murphy, an Asian religions student that attended Aiya’s Tuesday presentation and the Wednesday dinner, said it was an “absolutely fascinating ... beginning.”
Murphy went on to note that Hinduism is a dense subject, but to the class Aiya’s talk served for a good overview.
She also said that having had Dempsey as a professor before, it was an easy read with an entertaining and exceptional perspective.
In her class, Dempsey relayed that Aiya always enjoys his time spent here and the dinner with the students.
Murphy enjoyed Aiya’s visit as well. She wished there had been more time to talk to him about his faith and the temple.
