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“Not running to be pastor of Ohio”: Ramaswamy defends Hindu faith at public event
The Indian-origin Republican clarified beliefs, and said he is a ‘monotheist’ from Vedanta tradition, not a pastor.
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Pranavi Sharma - Thu, 09, Oct 2025
- 03:05 EDT
- 26
Vivek Ramaswamy. / X
Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for Governor of Ohio, told a packed audience at a Turning Point USA event in Ohio on Oct. 7, that his Hindu identity is rooted in a monotheistic Vedanta tradition of Hinduism and that he is not seeking a clerical role in public office.
Turning Point USA, an American nonprofit founded by Late Charlie Kirk that promotes conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses, hosted the event where Ramaswamy was questioned about his faith and its place in the U.S. politics.
Ramaswamy was asked by a member of the audience why, as a Hindu, he would join a Christian conservative movement. The questioner said he was “confused on why a polytheistic ideology would support a monotheistic perspective,” referring to Christianity.
Responding to the question, Ramaswamy clarified that his faith was rooted in monotheism. “I’m actually a monotheist. I believe there’s one true God. It’s from the Vedanta tradition of Advaita philosophy, he said”
He continued, “Every religion has its reconciling of the one and the many. In my faith, I believe there’s one true God. He resides in all of us, and he appears in different forms, but it’s one true God. So I’m an ethical monotheist.”
Ramaswamy then drew a comparison to Christianity, asking the questioner if belief in the Holy Trinity made Christians polytheistic. “That doesn’t make you a polytheist, does it?” he asked. “That’s a similar philosophy.”
He added, “I’m not running to be pastor of Ohio. I’m running to be governor of Ohio, and I didn’t run to be pastor of America. I ran to be president of the United States.”
Ramaswamy also invited the questioner on stage and handed him a personal copy of the U.S. Constitution. He asked him to read Article 6, Section 3 aloud, emphasizing the line: “No religious test shall ever be required as qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
Started as a very awkward moment when a young man questioned my faith. Ended with a beautiful moment of education & a celebration of our Constitution. Only in America. ️ pic.twitter.com/AxZJbvcbqL
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 8, 2025
Shukla praises Ramaswamy
Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, praised Ramaswamy’s handling of the moment in a post on X. “Well @VivekGRamaswamy handled this brilliantly,” she wrote. “He asserts his Hindu faith tradition, defines Advaita Vedanta without recoiling from Hindu identity and rhetorically invites the questioner to examine the concept of incarnations in Christianity.”
On political violence
In a separate exchange during the same event, Ramaswamy responded to a question about rising hostility in American politics. He condemned any normalization of political violence.
“The normalization of political violence is un-American,” he said. “One of the sins of the woke movement is the idea that words are violence. That’s where a lot of this began.”
He explained that equating speech with harm blurs moral boundaries. “If you turn words into violence, then somebody could think violence is justified in response,” he said. “We on the left and right have to be united that words are not violence. Violence is violence, and violence is never, ever an acceptable response to words.”
Ramaswamy’s remarks have drawn attention online for their assertive defense of Hindu philosophy and emphasis on constitutional principles in American politics.
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