Retired prof donates collection of sacred texts to local Hindus

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This article was published 10/12/2011 (5211 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a lifetime of studying a culture, philosophy and religion that was not his own, retired university professor Klaus Klostermaier is passing on his collection of sacred texts and commentaries to local Hindus.

“I was in India for 10 years and I assembled my own library because the public libraries weren’t very good,” explains Klostermaier, 78, of the more than 2,000 books on Hinduism, many of them rare or out of print, he will donate to the Hindu Society of Manitoba.

The collection will be housed at the Hindu Temple at 999 St. Anne’s Rd., as part of the Dr. Dakshinamurti Academy of Hindu Studies.

This gift of primary sources, commentaries and manuscripts, including one written on palm leaves, bumps up the academy’s library to become the largest collection of literature on Hinduism in Western Canada, says the society’s president.

“When somebody like Prof. Klostermaier comes forward, who is a non-Indian, that touches my heart, to know that people like him are promoting the Indian way of life, philosophy and culture,” says Narendra Mathur.

“It touches my heart to know that here is a man who has gone back 10,000 years to understand the beginnings of Hinduism.”

Klostermaier has long been fascinated by the people and culture of India. The German-born, Catholic-raised academic spent the early years of his career in India, before moving to Winnipeg in 1970 to take up a post in the religion department at the University of Manitoba.

“I was always interested in India. I don’t know why. (Maybe) a previous life,” explains the soft-spoken academic, who retired in 1999 but still teaches an undergraduate course in science and religion.

After a lifetime of studying Hinduism, and authoring nearly two dozen academic and popular books on the topic, including several used widely in university classes, Klostermaier is still intrigued by this mix of ancient culture, philosophy and religion practiced by nearly a billion people.

“There is the strong connection of living Indian culture at all levels with religion, from popular festivals to intellectual preoccupation,” says Klostermaier, author of The Wisdom of Hinduism, featuring quotes from centuries of Hindu thinkers and translated into Hungarian, French and German.

“The wide range of practices as well as intellectual approaches is another feature (I appreciate.) Above all it is the seriousness, with which ultimate issues are being thought through from all possible angles.”

Having Klostermaier’s extensive collection of Sanskrit and English books, including a 50-volume set called Sacred Books of the East, is a valuable asset for the city’s 18,000 Hindus, says Ganga Dakshinamurti, volunteer librarian for the Hindu Society, whose family donated funds to establish the academy.

Dakshinamurti intends to catalogue the books and post the listings on the society’s website (www.hindusocietyofmanitoba.org/) for the use of local scholars and those further afield. The books won’t circulate but are available for use within the library, she says.

“Not only is the collection much appreciated, the collection is done by someone who knows the subject,” says Dakshinamurti, a librarian at the University of Manitoba.

“It is put together by a non-Hindu who has done research in that area. His being an academic adds value, his being a non-Hindu adds value to it.”

After a long and distinguished career researching and writing, Klostermaier is pleased the books he has spent five decades collecting will be housed in one place for others to use.

“Many of the things are no longer in print,” he says.

“My concern was never to make money (from the books), but to have it used by people who are studying.”

brenda@suderman.com

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