Teaching Hinduism.

This week, Lal-krishna paid his seventh annual visit to Victoria College, Belfast. He's invited every year to speak to the older girls about Hinduism, as part of their religious knowledge education.

As he boldly faced his class of eighty young ladies, what did he hope to convey to their modern, western minds about this complex subject?

Lal-krishna: "Well, I keep it pretty simple. I show how 'Hinduism' is a huge umbrella term, under which almost every kind of theology or philosophy exists - from atheism to monotheism. I describe the three main strands of Hinduims - Shaivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism, and tell them that as I am from the Vaishnava tradition, I'll mainly concentrate on that.

I'm not so interested in presenting Hinduism as a foreign culture, or an academic subject; what really interests me is to engage the girls in the philosophy of the East and to give them something which has real meaning in their lives. I like talking to teenagers, as they're at an idealistic age and often think deeply about things. This time I talked to them about the advancement of consciousness. Our civilisation has advanced so hugely in terms of technology and science, but has it lessened greed, or envy? Are there fewer criminals, less depression, more happy people? Unless we advance also in spiritual consciousness, our material assets won't do us much good. This really seemed to strike a chord with them.

I explained the difference between matter and spirit, the concepts of reincarnation and karma and how to transcend the cycle of birth and death. The basic tenets of Vedic philosophy."

Apart from Lal-krishna's visits, Victoria College has another connection with ISKCON Ireland: one of it's ex-pupils became a devotee of Krishna in the mid-1980s. An accomplished artist and business-woman, she lives with her husband and family in Wicklow.