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Many Hindus, especially those abroad, love Christmas - for example Christmas at a Ram mandir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV2DzaAsADc . Rajiv Malhotra can be seen hand-wringing at the end of the video - but people are voting with their feet.

Wiki says about the immensely popular Sai baba:

Sai Baba also condemned distinction based on religion or caste. It remains unclear if he was a Muslim or a Hindu. This, however, was of no consequence to Sai Baba. His teaching combined elements of Hinduism and Islam: he gave the Hindu name Dwarakamayi to the mosque in which he lived, practised both Hindu and Muslim rituals, taught using words and figures that drew from both traditions, and took samadhi in Shirdi. One of his well-known epigrams, Allah Malik (God is King) and Sabka Malik Ek (Everyone's Master is One), is associated with both Hinduism and Islam."

In Tamil Nadu, Hindus go to Muslim imams to cure disease and remove spells.

Is this only a modern phenomenon or have scriptures talked about it?

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2 Answers 2

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Forget mingling with people of other religions, celebrating Christmas, etc. Scriptures such as Viṣṇu Smṛti expressly prohibit visiting foreign countries and having any sort of contact with foreigners. Else you will become one of them!

LXXXIV

  1. He must not offer a Śrāddha in a country inhabited by barbarians.

  2. He must not visit a country, inhabited by barbarians (excepting on a pilgrimage).

  3. By (constantly) drinking water from (or bathing in) a pool situated in a foreign (barbarous) country, he becomes equal to its inhabitants.

  4. Those countries are called barbarous (mlekkha) where the system of the four castes does not exist; the others are denoted Āryāvarta (the abode of the Āryans).

The Institutes of Vishnu
Translated by Julius Jolly
Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 7
Oxford, the Clarendon Press [1880]

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    what is the authority of vishnu smriti?
    – S K
    Commented Feb 23, 2018 at 22:38
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    From the Intro here: "THE Vishnu-smriti or Vaishnava Dharmasâstra or Vishnu-sûtra is in the main a collection of ancient aphorisms on the sacred laws of India, and as such it ranks with the other ancient works of this class which have come down to our time"
    – Say No To Censorship
    Commented Feb 23, 2018 at 22:41
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    hopefully actual Hindu practice will confine this kind of stuff to museums.
    – S K
    Commented Feb 23, 2018 at 22:45
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Amalgamating practices of other religions is not recommended.

Vyasa says, '..The rejection of one's own creed, the practice of other people's [*]creed, ......- these all have been pronounced by persons conversant with duties to be acts that no one should do.’

*Creed here is translated from the word - Dharma

Mahabharata Santi Parva, Section XXXIV-XXXV

I must add here that this advice is for those who have not attained moksha. Scriptural advice is not aimed at a man who has attained moksha.

I have found out that the word dharma has been translated as creed.

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  • what word are you translating as "creed"
    – S K
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 13:42
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    I am using Sri K. M. Ganguli's English translation. I don't know the Sanskrit word that has been translated as creed.
    – Pradip Gangopadhyay
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 14:08
  • at any rates Hindus that celebrate Christmas are not rejecting Hinduism - they are simply expressing Hindu inclusiveness
    – S K
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 14:28
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    At any rate Christmas is so commercialised today that it has become a secular holiday. It is also fitting since Christmas is based on the secular Saturnalia holiday celebrated by pagans in the Roman Empire. In fact I find that Christmas is celebrated with more gusto in India than in Europe and US.. Jewish areas in these countries do not celebrate Christmas at all. You have written that Hindus go to Muslim Imams to cure disease and remove spells. That is true possibly all over India. This happens possibly due to desperation and not because of urge of practising Islam.
    – Pradip Gangopadhyay
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 14:36
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    No, it is simply a factual statement. My mother took me to an Islamic mazhar when I was very sick as a child. She didn't go because she believed in many Islamic doctrines but because she was looking for some way to help me.My sympathies are completey with the people who are desperately looking for some relief.
    – Pradip Gangopadhyay
    Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 5:18

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