Losing (and Finding) Your Religion at University

University is a place where you can widen your knowledge and one aspect of this is with religion. There are societies for most religions that you can be part of, whether you practice the religion or not. It is a great way of learning and being more tolerant towards others’ beliefs.

Sitting through a christening yesterday, my first ever, was a rather unique experience. On being asked if I had attended mass before, to my surprise, I realized I had while at university. My flatmate at the time was Catholic and asked me to go with her. At first I hesitated, wondering if  this was the start of some sort of conversion. Using my better judgement, I ended up tagging along and despite it being quite lengthy, I found myself enjoying it.

Keep your mind open and not only will you learn to appreciate other religions, I’ll also throw in a few tips on where to get free food.

Making friends

Thinking back on my first day at university, my parents didn’t drop me off, as it was a rather long trip from India to the UK! I didn’t know a single person there and being quite shy, I sat in my room for the first day. On the second day, I ventured out to freshers’ week and was a bit overwhelmed so I quickly went back to the sanctity of my room.

It was through a Buddhist group that I made my first friends. Group members were from different countries so not only do you learn about different religions, you also have a deeper understanding of how it is practised in different countries and the cultural influences.

Living with religion

At some point throughout university, you may find yourself living with people with different religious beliefs from whom you will learn a lot. On the other hand, restrictions others may have on food habits, such as  not being able to share a saucepan for whatever reason may annoy you. But if you open up your mind, in reality, it is no different to living with a vegetarian, non vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, or any other dietary groups you can think of.

At first, I found aspects of religion harder to understand than others…

I came home one day from university and the light switch in the hallway was not working. Pitch black, I stumbled on a few shoes whilst trying to find the source of the problem but on further inspection, I had discovered that the bulb was gone.

Opening the fridge, that had no light as well, the light had been taped over. Finding all this a bit bizarre I messaged my flatmate; no response. Two days later I get a reply that it is part of following the rituals for Shabbat. That was a great moment of revelation for me.  Being plunged into darkness every time I entered the flat was not ideal, but it also made me curious and I’m glad I now know more about the Jewish faith.

Free food!

Religious groups have discovered that the key to the student heart is through free food, probably through observing that students tend to spend all their money by the first week of the month. So, not only do you get to stuff your belly, you’ll also learn about the religion from observing those non food-freeloaders who have come to worship.

Throughout university, I lived next to a mosque.  As the mosque’s kitchen served food that was delicious and cheap, many students used to go there for lunch. The Islamic society at university used to organise events at the mosque during the holy festivals and anyone could attend.

The Hare Krishna group used to come and give free food at the campus and there would be long queues. On a Sunday all the Gurudwara’s (Sikh temples) also have langar (once again, free food) and you will find students flocking there.

Get involved

Almost every university will have a South Asian students association of some sort. They will celebrate all the major religious festivals; Diwali, Eid, Holy etc. and students from all backgrounds attend these events in large numbers. It is not all about praying, it’s about celebrating together and the spirit of sharing.

Through this you create awareness and break down the barriers in peoples’ minds about the rigidity of certain religions. Oh, dancing, singing, eating and consumption of various kinds of beverages are also part of this, in case you’re interested.

There will be societies for most religions so no one is ever left out; not even the atheists.