Pluralism isn't just diversity; it's something we create out of this diversity.

My first intellectual challenge was to try to understand this incredible city of Banaras (also called Varanasi) in India and its meaning for Hindus. That was the place I lived for the first year I was in India and I've been back many times. It's a kind of home to me.

I will say that the power of being a stranger in someone else's religious community has its own lessons, really. It is something like the power of visiting another very happy extended family and being at their table.

The idea of going on a spiritual journey is really part of the DNA of India itself.

I do think that the U.S. has an opportunity as a democracy to really exemplify what a religiously diverse society can be when it embraces the pluralism.

Pluralism isn't just diversity; it's something we create out of this diversity.

Some of my best friends are Hindu or Buddhist or Sikh, my students as well. This is the sea in which I swim.