23 February 2014 - QA 11

Why are people into conversion? Do they have an identity crisis?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You know, people leave one religion and go to another religion because they have not studied their own religion properly. This is a problem. They have not understood their faith, or the essence of it fully. This happens especially in the Hindu faith because we are simply going on with the rituals and we don’t understand it or study it. There are not many opportunities to study the Vedantic scriptures, or Yoga scriptures, or Yoga Vasistha, or books like this. So we know very little about our Vedas or Vedic heritage, especially in India. So people tend to convert.
I feel that they should first study their own faith in depth; whatever faith they are born in.

Do not denigrate the faith you are born in when you convert. Conversion is your free choice. But do not insult the faith or denigrate the faith.