Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 38, No. 4, Winter 1999

Hindu Counsellingin the Netherlands

ALPHONS M. G. VAN DIJK

ABSTRACT: Increasing participation of Muslims and Hindus in church-state relations in theNetherlands is bringing about a slow change in the different cultural and historical backgroundsof "non-indigenous" religious traditions and in their self-esteem and religious attitudes. We maycall this participation, and especially the changes it causes, a good example of Systemzwang, thesystematic power of the dominant but historically grown social and cultural order in which new-comers are expected to fit. This process of external influence will be demonstrated by the exam-ple of the development of the traditional Hindu priest, the pandit, to a modern professionalpastoral or Hindu-spiritual counsellor and by the mutual-learning process of the religiously dif-ferent pastoral professionals in the semi-governmental service organizations.

Introduction

The integration of Europe today is often considered a macro process amongstates or nations, socio-economic systems, religions, and larger culturalgroups and languages. Some people believe in the new dimensions; others arehighly critical and distrust all over-centralized power. Individual citizenshave their own sometimes highly critical experiences and opinions of thisintegration, which they feel as having been imposed on them. These differentvisions are a part of the ongoing tension between the tendency of globaliza-tion of life styles, attitudes and organizational structures and the oppositetendency of "going local," paying attention to local groups or minority rights.A comparable tension exists between the tendencies of unification and plural-ism, even multiculturalism. These tensions do not merely exist on the so-called macro or micro levels. In-between there are also meso processes goingon, some on a larger, some on a smaller scale, where after a time newcomersmeet and even try to participate in existing intermediary systems. One ofthese smaller intermediary systems is the professional organization of pas-toral or spiritual counsellors in the Netherlands. The newcomers are Hindupandits.

Alphons M. G. van Dijk, Ph.D., is at the University of Humanist Studies in Utrecht, Nether-lands.

319 1999 Blanton-Peale Institute

Journal of Religion and Health

Religion or world-view in the Netherlandsas a statistical, social, or cultural phenomenon

More than half the Dutch citizens no longer consider themselves members ofone of the Christian churches. For the majority of them, religiosity or world-view has become a matter of individual choice and subjective attitude. Forsome years now the government has no longer been registering citizens ac-cording to their membership in an acknowledged church or world-view orga-nization. The churches have to rely on their own administration system formembership roles. For reasons of privacy, some big state-university hospitalsalso no longer register the religion or worldview of their patients, who in turnare supposed to express their own desire for pastoral or spiritual counselling.Upon their arrival, they are informed about all facilities.

Because the government does not gather data on religious preferences thestatistical number of the Muslim and Hindu minorities in the Netherlands,who have migrated from other countries with different administrative sys-tems and historical and religion state relations, is not known and can only beguessed at. At the same time these groups lack their own reliable system ofregistration as Muslims or Hindus within their own circle, at least from thegovernment viewpoint. To date, and notwithstanding their quest for someunifying organization, Muslims and Hindus still do not have any church-likemodel of organization and administration such as Dutch society and thegovernmental system are accustomed to. The question for minority religiousgroups is how to go about this task, particularly if they want to be treatedand financially supported by the national or local government in the sameway and to the same degree as the churches and the Humanist League andas was officially supported by a governmental commission (Hirsch Ballin,1988). This commission considered equal treatment to be a logical consequenceof the Dutch Constitution. In order to be able to subsidize or pay the sal-aries—directly or indirectly by semi-governmental institutions—of officialMuslim or Hindu professional pastoral counsellors in the Army, in the Peni-tentiary or the Health System, as is the case with their Catholic, Protestant,humanist and Jewish colleagues, the government demands an official repre-sentative body, an acknowledged religious or world-view organization with arecognized membership. Until now the migrant religions of Islam and Hindu-ism, with their different historical and cultural traditions, have lacked anysuch organization. Hinduism as a typical orthopraxis lacks even basic decla-ration of what it stands for. Together with large differences in socio-religiousorganization, this may be one of the most important points of comparisonbetween the new Dutch Hinduism and the long-term indigenous Christianchurches, with their historically developed systems of organization and theo-logical reflection.

320

321

Religion: Diminishing or changing?

To consciously devote oneself to a religious or world-view organization (as, forexample, the Humanist League, which, according to the Dutch Constitutionmust be treated as equal with the churches) seems to be mostly, although notexclusively, a matter for older people. Although religion in the sense of churchattendance may be decreasing, as all reports of the SCP (the Dutch SociaalCultureel Planbureau) show, religion in the sense of a diffuse (and, for tradi-tionalist observers, invisible) element of social and personal life and personalinspiration (Luckmann, 1970) is very much alive, as a quest for meaningdealing with what ultimately concerns people. Belief in some ultimate god orgoal remains remarkably high in the Netherlands and has been constant fordecades. This means that the historically monopolistic features of church or-ganization, characteristic of the large Roman Catholic or the Dutch ReformedChurches and imitated by the Humanist League, no longer provides the uniquemodel of religion or even of religiosity or world view. The types of religio-sociological organization are becoming increasingly diverse. Churches arecompeting in a common marketplace of religious producers and providers andconsumers. Expressed in terms of secularization, to merely pay attention tothe decline of church attendance, as most sociologists have done, seems toresult in a neglect of other aspects of the phenomenon, as for example thechanging of religious organization and the increase of pluralization connectedto the privatization on or individualization of religion. Religion, as definedimplicitly or explicitly by sociologists, may be changing.

Seen from an anthropological perspective, religions can be conceived alongtwo different lines, with different functions. The first is that of a kind ofexplanatory or explicatory system, providing evidence on how things are andwhy they are as they are and how they should function in the present and thefuture, which means, how can a religious believer or group influence the courseof things in order to make life more secure? Religion may also justify events orsituations (Berger, 1967).

But there is also another type and function of religion, though neither typeexcludes the other and both mix in everyday life. It is the type of religionwhich, roughly speaking, may prevail in modern scientific and individualizedsocieties. Here, religion may also provide a sense of community, especiallycommunity with the cosmos or "the all, the course of life," ultimate reality.This aspect of religion has to do with meaning, with inner orientation, withthe feeling of existential well-being rather than with the manipulation of life(Tennekes, 1990, p. 49).

Religion as a system of meaning, a striving for emotional balance in suchareas as personal responsibility, severe illness, and death, seems to be themajor concern of professional client-centered pastoral or spiritual counsellingas it is practiced in Dutch institutions. This profession of pastoral or spiritual

Alphons M. G. van Dijk

322 Journal of Religion and Health

counselling has developed since the early sixties and is strongly dominated byhumanist psychology (Fromm, Erikson, Rogers, Maslow). Two questions ariseabout this second type of religion and focusing on the Hindu minority:

1) What will happen if Hinduism in the Netherlands undergoes a slowchange from by and large a system and praxis of explanation and influ-ence (the first function of religion), with emphasis on the pandit as aritualist and priest, to an increasingly meaning-giving system, with em-phasis on the pandit as a guru (in the broadest sense of the word), aspiritual guide or companion in the quest for meaning (the second func-tion of religion)?

2) What will happen if a Hindu pandit participates in that new type ofpastoral or spiritual counselling which belongs to the second function ofreligion?

I use the term "spiritual counselling" to place it alongside the term "pastoral,"of Christian usage. I prefer the broader term, spiritual counselling, because itupholds a certain difference, compared with social-therapeutic counselling orpsychotherapy on the one hand and is, on the other, broad enough to be usedto include the humanist, world-view-inspired counselling, which is so wide-spread in the Netherlands. The term "spiritual" may have some New Ageassociations, but I am not addressing those in this paper. Therefore, on thewhole I use pastoral and spiritual as twin terms.

The present situation

Although the traditional Dutch division of society into denominational com-partments (which in Dutch sociological and historical literature are called"pillars"), each with its own religious, cultural, and social organizations andinstitutions, is slowly weakening, this disappearing phenomenon still givesminority religions, of distant origin, such as Islam and Hinduism, the politi-cally acknowledged right to receive financial help from a religiously neutralgovernment, to shape their own social and cultural institutions, just as do thetraditional churches and the Humanist League. The Muslim and Hindu pop-ulation is represented in the army, in penitentiaries and in health-care insti-tutions. Recently, pilot projects have been started with a few imams and pan-dits as members of the integrated pastoral/spiritual counselling services ofsome of the university hospitals, as directly or indirectly state-supportedfunctionaries. This is not just a question of providing governmental or semi-governmental facilities to minority religions in the same way and to the samedegree as the traditionally recognized denominations. Increasing participa-tion in church-state relations in the Netherlands is bringing about a slowchange in our understanding of non-indigenous religious traditions, their self-

323

conception, self-consciousness, and religious attitudes. We may call this Sys-temzwang, the systematic power of the dominant but historically developedsocial and cultural order in which newcomers are expected to find their place(Dijk, 1996). This will be shown by the example of the development of thetraditional Hindu pandit/purohit into a modern professional pastoral counsel-lor and by the intercultural communication and mutual learning-process ofthe different pastoral professionals in semi-governmental service organiza-tions. The basic two questions cited above return.

The traditional Hindu pandit in Surinam and in the Netherlands

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, poor Indian workers, mostfrom the United Provinces and Bihar of British India, migrated to the Dutchcolony of Surinam, formerly Dutch Guyana in Central America. In their longboat trip and the harsh conditions they had to contend with in the new coun-try, they lost the most marked characteristic of their traditional caste system,ritual purity. But in their quest for a new identity in an ethnically diverseand non-Hindu country, they gathered around the Brahmins among them,who in turn held on to what was left of their old Indian privileges. The Brah-mins profiled themselves as priests or ritualists, astrologers, religious story-tellers and moral explicators of the old epics, sometimes as healers, and to acertain degree as house or family gurus, advisers in all aspects of family life.For a long time after the migration, temples (mandirs) failed in SurinamHinduism, as did the ascetic guru, who in traditional Indian Hinduism usu-ally functions in opposition to the Brahmin priest. Within a short time, theBrahmin pandit reached a position of monopolistic power in the new Hindu-ism in Surinam (Dijk, 1996). Prolonging the old Indian Jajmani-system, oneof mutual but different and caste-bound services among inhabitants of a vil-lage or region, the new Surinam pandit, who may not even have been edu-cated as a pandit or priest, gathered a group of client families around him.For them, he functioned as a family guru as well as a purohit (priest). TheHindu religion in Surinam was a house and home religion. Rituals were per-formed indoors or on private property and only rarely and much later in tem-ples.

Around 1930, the reform movement of the Arya Samaj, coming from themotherland, India, and the neighboring country, British Guyana, becamerather successful. It rejected both the Brahmin-caste-bound panditship, aswell as caste itself. It also rejected what it considered to be idolatry, the wor-ship (puja) of anthropomorphic deities. But in challenging the Brahmin pan-dit, it created a new type, and thus focused itself anew on panditship as such.

From the 1970s onward, a large group of about 90,000 Hindus migratedfrom Surinam to the Netherlands, the second migration of a community in ahundred years. With integration as its goal, the Dutch government tried to

Alphons M. G. van Dijk

Journal of Religion and Health

spread the group over a large part of the country, but to no avail. Twenty-fiveyears later, the majority are to be found in the west, in the provinces of Northand South Holland.

But let us concentrate on the pandit, and especially on the pandit as aphenomenon in the traditionalist mainstream among the Hindu minority, theso-called Sanatana Dharma, the Timeless or Everlasting Order or Harmony,which is supposed to underlie all processes in the phenomenal world. Al-though commonly used in Surinam and Dutch Hinduism, the title of pandit ismisleading. In traditional Hinduism, pandit means scholar or learned person.But this role is just one part or aspect of the many and varying roles whichthe Surinam and Dutch pandit, as the title is commonly used, really plays inhis monopolistic position. He normally functions as a house or family priest(purohit), providing the main rites de passage (samskaras or sacraments) asfor example in birth rites and rituals of name-giving, the initiation, wedding,and funeral rites. He is also a worship priest (pujari), offering worship to thefamily gods of his client families and sometimes performing temple worship.He may also recite various texts from the Holy Vedas (as the Arya Samajipandit also does), from the ancient and venerable epics, the Mahabharataand Ramayana, as well as from the Puranas (which the Arya Samaji panditrefutes), and explain them to his audience. He knows prayers or mantras forspecial occasions. He functions as an astrologer to guide clients to times andactivities which may prove prosperous or are best avoided. Sometimes he alsofunctions as an exorcist, healer, and interpreter of dreams. Because of hissupposedly great knowledge about human life and social situations, he mayalso, as house or family guru, become a kind of psychologist (as one informantcalled him) or adviser in all kinds of family issues. In order to play all theseroles sufficiently well, there must be regular contact between him and hisclient families. Such contact was manageable in the small-scale and mainlyagrarian situation in Surinam, but is far more complicated, even endangered,in modern, industrialized Holland.

Changes in the pandit-client situation in the Netherlands

It is at this point that the second migration, which started in the early 1970s,caused geographical, social, and psychological problems for the pandit and hisclient families. Of course, migration to the Netherlands could not but seversome of the Surinam-born pandit-client relations (jajmani-relations). Afterthe migration, the spreading of groups of client families and individuals overthe entire country, another geographical problem arose—pandits who hadmigrated with their clients had to travel extensively in order to visit themand perform their rituals. It could hardly be avoided that clients, particularlythe younger ones of the second generation, would complain about the growinganonymity of the family pandit. Nowadays, literature on Dutch Hinduism

324

Alphons M. G. van Dijk 325

speaks of busy travelling "ritual or religious entrepreneurs," who, throughlack of the income they were used to in agrarian Surinam have become shrewdprice-conscious functionaries.

Another problem developed because of the higher level of education in thesecond generation combined with the growing individualization and move-ment to societal levelling. More and more, young people started to questionboth the symbolism and the length of performance of traditional rituals. Thelack of really trustworthy and widespread knowledge of Hindu tradition andwisdom, as well as of modern life in a highly industrialized modern society,combined with the specialized and professional knowledge and skills of thepandits seems to be a major impediment to the creation of a new type ofHinduism in the Dutch situation. This is the portrayal in the literature onDutch Hinduism, written both by Hindu and non-Hindu scholars (Dijk, 1996;Burg, 1993). In order to substantiate this description, we are in need of sys-tematic research, both quantitative and qualitative, which has not been un-dertaken to date (Dijk and Kuipers, 1994).

There are some signs of a new and different development concerning therole and position of pandits. In a society in which belief appears to becomingmore and more a question of personal attitude and individual choice, and inwhich religion is slowly changing from explanation and need for security(type I) to meaning (type II), smaller groups of Hindus are moving from tradi-tional ritual to the study of old Hindu wisdom and to the practice of yoga.Some have become interested in the so-called Guru Movements: Sai Baba, theHare Krishna Movement, or the Brahmarishi Mission. These signs may beinterpreted as a change from the traditional Hindu type of priest-bound rit-ual religion to what Stark and Bainbridge (1985) call Client or even AudienceCults. Followers of such cults are oriented to what might be called mystical-meaning systems, which sometimes seem to be experienced more intensivelyin the vicinity of gurus considered more trustworthy than entrepreneur-pandits.

Another development, albeit on a smaller scale, is the shift from acceptanceof the Brahmin-caste priest (in some Sanatani circles), the traditional janma-vada pandit (the pandit-by-right-of-birth), to the acceptance of the karma-vada pandit (the pandit acknowledged on the basis of his behavior andactivities). In sociological terms, this can be described as a change from "attri-bution" to "achievement." By behaving in a more Brahmin-like way than theaverage Brahmin, namely by studying the ancient knowledge and wisdom ofHinduism more than most ordinary pandits do, and by renouncing meat, fish,eggs, alcohol, nicotine, and illicit sex-relations, these karma-vada panditsevoke and correspond with the old Indian ideal of the arya (noble) person, aliving example to others, showing them how to behave on their way throughlife toward freedom or salvation (moksha). With the manifestation of this newtype of self-appointed or charismatically anointed pandit, the traditional jaj-mani type of pandit (family pandit) is being challenged by a new and more

Journal of Religion and Health

democratic type (the Arya Samaji's even have some female pandits, calledpandita), who slowly but surely is finding acceptance through better knowl-edge, a more modern behavior and inspiration, with emphasis on pastoralqualities.

Guruship, guidance and pastoral counselling

In traditional Hinduism the guru is normally seen as a spiritual preceptor.But this does not mean that he (normally, the traditional guru is male) issupposed to seek his own disciples. A real guru does not yearn for admirers;he is a "homeless" person, without any conventional bindings, either on thematerial or spiritual level. The disciple, not the guru, takes the initiative. Thetraditional Hindu approach assumes the guru should be sought because hehas become more god-like or Self-realized by some form of yoga or meditation.He becomes a heavyweight (from guru, which means heavy), a door to thegodhead, to realization or liberation. He provides a powerful perspective (dar-shan) on the ultimate aim of life. As both a human being and a manifestationof god, he functions as the outer guru who awakens or evokes the inner guru,dormant in the inner processes of the disciple. The inner guru is the meansby which the one, highest and absolute guru, the Supreme Brahman, can bereached and realized. But the disciple must accomplish this himself. He mustmake the journey. The outer guru is but a medium. He is not to be wor-shipped as momentous person or individual, but rather as the Door to Percep-tion. He is to be trusted entirely, because such a trust in his higher spiritualrealization functions as a way of self-renunciation, the growing self-emptyingof the disciple on his way to self-realization. The basic attitudes of the disci-ple toward his guru are obedience (shushrusha) and faith or trust (shraddha).The guru on the other hand is expected to live in a way in which vision,teachings, and actual behavior are perfectly congruent and integrated (Walker,1968; Zimmer, 1973).

Notwithstanding this ideal vision, traditional Hindu wisdom acknowledgesthe social and psychological ambivalence of the guru-disciple relation. But ithas left it to the free market of karma processes—each individual finds orgets the guru he seeks or longs for! To learn this may be part of the life-longjourney to self-realization. This may cause problems with concepts of pastoralor spiritual care and client-centered pastoral counselling as practiced in Dutchprofessional circles. Public institutions employing a pastoral or spiritual coun-sellor demand a certain standard of academic education and professional train-ing as well as some cooperation or even sharing of vision among the severaland different counsellors an institution may employ.

Within Dutch Hinduism there may be a slow shift from the traditional pan-dit as ritualist to the pandit as a trustworthy spiritual guide or companion ina confusing pluralist and industrialized society. We have also seen that old

326

Alphons M. G. van Dijk

Mother India may rediscover or reclaim some of her migrant children in theNetherlands through the influence of Neohindu Guru Movements. These twophenomena are two different ways of developing what might be called theguru dimension of Dutch Hinduism. The Dutch indologist Schouten, highlycritical of the second way, writes: "It may be questioned if this developmentdoes justice to the intrinsic and special development of the Hindustanis. Theirhistory of many decades in Surinam and their admirable acculturation (or ac-climatization) to Dutch society may have brought them more than the Indianoutsider observes" (Schouten, 1994, p. 119). In other words, the attention tospiritual guidance or company as the broadest description of the so-called guru-dimension, a phenomenon which is growing among Dutch Hindus, should notbe confused with the actual attention to Neohinduist gurus from India. Thelatter is just a (sometimes critically evaluated) expression of a deeper need,which is more in line with the first.

How the pandit functions among the various Hindu groups, and within theso-called strictly religious realm, is no matter for the government or othersecular institutions. But the situation changes the moment the secular gov-ernment or semi-governmental institution provides the salaries of the offi-cials who are "sent" (this is the legal term) by the acknowledged churches andthe non-Christian religious bodies or world-view organizations in order towork inside these institutions. Institutions are responsible for the quality andprofessionalism of their practitioners. According to the official formula, thesending body, the religious or world-view association, is responsible for thematerial content of pastoral or spiritual counselling, while the providing in-stitution must take care of the formal aspects and the conditions thereof.

Until now this formal distinction seems to have worked fairly well. But thisentire conceptualization has been historically conditioned by a widespreadbut still particularized concept and image of how professional counsellingshould be carried out. Although the pastoral or humanist counsellor is sup-posed to be well educated in and inspired by his own world-view or religioustradition, with other collective aspects, it is practically assumed that he shouldbe client-centered. But there are implications for assuming a client-centeredapproach. What kind of mental associations or implicit ideology do professionalshave in using and expressing such a principle? All pastoral or humanist counsel-lors are expected to have followed a course such as Clinical Pastoral Education,or its equivalent. Such a course is a mixture of basic knowledge of psycho-analysis and psychopathology, theory and praxis of so-called humanist psychol-ogy, and of training in counselling. The views of Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, andAbraham Maslow about anti-authoritarian religiosity and self-realizationor self-actualization along the lines of the human-potential movement had astrong impact on the practice of this type of counselling (Carver and Scheier,1992; Heitink, 1997). The main idea here is client-centeredness, to guide, orrather to accompany, a client on his often interrupted or endangered quest,through illness, existential problems, and death, for personal meaning. This

327

328

process should follow the lines of the personal and internalized religion or world-view of the client. The counsellor should act as a professional who helps theclient to articulate or regain his personal meaning-system insofar as this systemdoes not conflict with the counsellor's own personal religion, worldview ormeaning system, or with his responsibility towards the association that "sent"him. Thus pastoral or spiritual counselling is a process during which twonarratives meet, with emphasis on the client's. Clients can freely choose amongall the different denominational counsellors of an institution. As a specialservice, the counsellors also have a certain task within the cure-and-care insti-tution with regard to its other activities, sometimes religious, such as educatingand informing employees, participating in ethical reflections, or discussingmaterial provisions such as food (vegetarian for Hindus, hallal-slaughtered forMuslims, kosher for Jews), or clothes (in terms of ritual purity or symbolicmeaning).

From priest to guru? The pandit as pastoral professional

If this brief description of pastoral or spiritual counselling in Dutch institutionsis correct, the question arises as to how the Hindu pandit will find his place androle in such an historically developed and specialized professionalized field.Some pandits have recently started work in this field. One of them shows hisawareness of possible tensions:

The presence of the pandit is very dominant, because he is considered to beauthoritative. His position is between the divine and the existential, but patientswho are driven by despair may demand too much from him. Sometimes he—unconsciously—behaves with too much compliancy, with all the effects this causes.The pandit, who is considered to be infallible and reverential, can unconsciouslydamage the confidence of his patients (Ramdhani, 1996, p. 333).

And:

It is also ( . . . ) very important that the pandit in this situation of accompanimentdoes not behave as if he is standing on a pedestal. There is a real need for an equaldiscussion between two human beings. In such a situation the patient gets aresponse to his signals and will not hesitate to open up, because he feels he's in goodhands (ibid.).

This young pandit gives us a good impression of what Dutch pastoral orspiritual counselling circles expect a Hindu pandit to do if he wants to partici-pate in professional and institutional counselling. He has perhaps internalizedthe basic views of what is supposed to be modern counselling. But he is stillconscious about the basic Hindu assumption that he himself, as a pandit orguru, is a mediator between the divine and the existential. He is not just, or even

Journal of Religion and Health

Alphons M. G. van Dijk

predominantly, a functional and professional counsellor on behalf of a "sending"party, inspired by its religious traditions or world views. According to him thereis much more to be found between heaven and earth. This corresponds withwhat we have understood about the traditional idea of guruship. When wecompare it with indigenous Dutch ideology and prevalent practice of pastoral orspiritual counselling, we have to realize that in Hindu counselling the transcen-dent or vertical line is and will long remain more important than it might be inmuch present-day Christian and humanist counselling. If this is right, it showsus another aspect of the process.

Especially when we look for the denominational mixture of the various coun-sellors in several pastoral or spiritual counselling services in the larger hospi-tals or other such institutions, we should realize that to successfully integrateall these officials so that the cooperation between them is optimal, this integra-tion must be a two-way process. This situation demands a new type of under-standing of Hindu guruship, a development from authoritative guidance toinspiring accompaniment. This immediately raises the question of the mutualaspects of the integration process. If we look at the denominational mixture ofthe various counsellors in these services, we come to realize that successfulcooperation is not just a matter of giving Hindu pandits an opportunity to adaptto and adopt existing standards and concepts of professional spiritual counsel-ling. From the Hindu point of view, they must also expect some understanding oftheir specific mixture of the form and matter of their spiritual guidance oraccompaniment from the officials of established denominations. The dominatingconcept of professional counselling is neither neutral nor fully "objective."

The remaining question is, Will the Hindu community, and particularly pan-dits, accept this dominant, system-immanent challenge, or will they reject or atleast change it, and if so, how? What special kind of counselling will DutchHinduism develop in secular institutions?

Conclusion

Let us put all the shifts in the role of the pandit together. First, there was theshift from pandit as ritualist (purohit/pujari) to the guru-like aspects or roles ofpanditship. Secondly, there was a shift from the Brahmin pandit to the caste-indifferent pandit, a shift from privilege to function. Thirdly, there was thepossible weakening of traditional pandit-client relations. In these three shiftsthere appear two extreme types: On the one hand, there is the traditional caste-bound male Brahmin pandit who functions mainly as a ritualist, having pandit-client relations with a more or less fixed group of client families, working inprivate houses or temples, with clear status and private income (the traditionalpurohit and pujari). On the other hand, there is the male or female and caste-indifferent pandit, with individualized and freely chosen client relations, who asa semi-government-paid professional deals with existential problems by spiri-

329

Journal of Religion and Health

tual accompaniment, working in public institutions, with acquired status andprofessionality (the "guru" type, as a Hinduism-inspired and officially "sent"professional Hindu spiritual counsellor). In fact, there are several gradations orcombinations among these extreme types. Incidentally some clients or patientscombine the two extreme types, developing inspiring discussions of existentialmeaning in some public institution with Hindu professional counsellors andrituals with the family pandit as a purohit at home, after temporary or perma-nent discharge from the institution. But this implies a professional differentia-tion in roles and types of panditship. Unless the Hindu population in theNetherlands actively resists this development and organizes its official religiousfunctions and activities along other and more consciously chosen lines, theHindu professional and institutional counsellor will find his own place anddirection. Actually, he already exists in a small number of hospitals. His mani-festation in this way will have repercussions in the fulfilment of all the other andmore traditional aspects and roles of panditship. This may not be a process witha clear intrinsic logic. But at least it is an understandable outcome or product ofthe dominant historical Dutch system of state-church relations in combinationwith the specialization and differentiation in roles and function that seems to becharacteristic of what sociologists call modernization. According to some infor-mants, a modest pilot experience in one of the health-care institutions showsthat the very supply of a new function, that of the Hindu spiritual counsellor,creates after some time a higher demand from the side of the patients, comparedwith the situation before he arrived.

References

Berger, P., The Sacred Canopy. Elements of a sociological theory of religion. New York: Doubleday,1967.

Burg, C. van der, "Surinam Hinduism in the Netherlands and Social Change," in R. Barot, ed.,Religion and Ethnicity: Minorities and Social Change in the Metropolis. Kampen, Netherlands,1993.

Carver, C. and Scheier, M., Perspectives on Personality. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1992, Chapters 14and 15.

Dijk, A.M.G. van, "Hinduismus in Suriname und den Niederlanden. Konfessionalisie rung undLaizierung als Aspekte von Religionisiering: die Herausforderung der Sakularisierung" (Hindu-ism in Surinam and the Netherlands: the Challenge of Secularization). Zeitschr.fur Mission-swissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft. Jg. 80, 1996, Heft 3, pp. 179-196.

Dijk, H.J. van and Kuipers, G., eds., Hindoestaanse jongeren en hun belevingswereld. Een verken-nend onderzoek (Hindustani youth and its world of experience). University of Utrecht, 1994.

Heitink, G., "Pastoraat en psychologische scholen" (Pastorate and Schools of Psychology). Prak-tische Theologie. 1997, nr. 1, pp. 24-40.

Hirsch Ballin, Overheid, Godsdienst en Levensovertuiging (Government, Religion and World-view).The Hague: Ministry of Home Affairs, 1988.

Luckmann, T., The Invisible Religion. The Problem of Religion in Modern Society. New York:Macmillan, 1970.

Ramdhani, A, "Hindoei'stische geestelijke verzorging" (Hindu spiritual care). In: J.J.A. Doolaard,ed., Handboek geestelijke verzorging in zorginstellingen (Handbook of Spiritual Care in HealthInstitutions). Kampen: Kok Publishers, 1996, pp. 330-335.

330

Alphons M. G. van Dijk

Schouten, J.P., "Nederlandse hindoes op zoek naar hun wortels. Een schets van de BrahmarishiMission" (Dutch Hindus seeking their roots. A sketch of the Brahmarishi Mission). ReligieuzeBewegingen in Nederland. Amsterdam: VU Publishers, nr.29, 1994, pp. 99-122.

Stark, R. and Bainbridge, W.S., The Future of Religion. Secularization, Revival and Cult Formation.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

Tennekes, J., De anbekende dimensie. Over cultuur, cultuurverschillen en macht (The UnknownDimension. On Culture, Culture Differences and Power). Apeldoorn/Leuven: Garant Publishers,1990.

Walker, B., Hindu World. London: Allen & Unwin, 1968. Part I, s.v. guru.Zimmer, H. Philosophie und Religion Indiens (Philosophies of India). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Pub-

lishers, 1973.

331