Arun Sharma, a Boeing engineer from Everett, is working with fellow Hindus, collecting money and clothes for tsunami survivors.

Marlina Soerakoesoemah of Redmond, co-founder of a magazine for Islamic women, works with other local Muslims and Indonesians, and the larger community, to buy women's hygiene products to send to Indonesia.

And John Roberts of Bellevue, director of a regional Buddhist organization, spends much of his time working with fellow Buddhists here to raise money to build 100 houses in Sri Lanka.

For all three, the decision to help stems both from their respective faiths and from their ties to countries hit hardest by the tsunami — Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population; Sri Lanka, primarily Buddhist with a sizable Hindu population; and India, primarily Hindu with a sizable Muslim population.

"The love of the land is still very much alive," said Sharma, who emigrated from India in 1991. "We all feel the pain."

While one need not ascribe to a certain faith to want to help — as is attested to by the multitudes who have given time, money and labor these past few weeks — for these three, the tenets of their religions have shaped both the way they view what happened and what they're doing about it.

No dwelling on why

Soerakoesoemah, a 37-year-old mother of two and the creative director and co-founder of the magazine Azizah, doesn't dwell on why the tsunami happened.

"We Muslims believe that all good and bad come from God," she said. "What we perceive to be bad may not be bad for us. What we perceive as good may not be good for us. We have to trust him."

Instead, "I think we have to look past the destruction to see what the messages is." For her, the message lies in "what the survivors are going to do about it."

Heartened by seeing people locally and worldwide "coming together for a cause — I think that's God's work right there" — she asked herself what she could do. She bore in mind the prophet Muhammad's exhortation that every Muslim has to give sadaqah — take part in charity or good deeds — every day the sun rises.

She immediately thought of the girls and women who survived the tsunami. "I was talking to a neighbor about how sanitary napkins or women's underwear isn't high on anyone's list. It's so personal."

So with the help of the neighbor, who spread the word through her women's club, the Women to Women project was born. People from as far as Texas and New York wrote checks. She estimates the effort has raised about $1,000 so far.

But Soerakoesoemah is uncomfortable being singled out when so many are helping. "Everything comes from God," she said. "I am only doing what I can."

Lesson in humility

Sharma, the engineer, doesn't dwell on the "why" of the tsunami either.

Hindus generally believe in a supreme God with many manifestations. "At times we forget in the routine of life that we are a drop in the ocean" ruled by that supreme power, Sharma said. An event like this "teaches you to be humble."

The 40-year-old father of two is taking part in relief efforts through the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center in Bothell, of which he is a board member. The temple has collected about $60,000, helped by matching funds from local companies. That money will go to the Association for India's Development. Temple members have also shipped 140 boxes of clothes to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Hinduism's sacred texts call for all members in a village to care for one another, a tenet Sharma views as meaning humans everywhere must do the same.

Hindus also believe that while the body may die, the soul does not, and that those who die will be reborn. "The people who are dead — they are not the ones who are suffering any more," he said.

That's why he's focusing on helping survivors. "The people who they've left behind are the ones who are suffering."

Fertile ground

Roberts believes that forces such as the tsunami are "a fact of nature. There's no particular cause for it, outside of the laws of the natural world."

Such occurrences provide fertile ground for practicing the Buddhist teaching of nonattachment, Roberts said. "All things are impermanent. If you try to hold on to things the way they are, without change, you will experience grief."

S. RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Marlina Soerakoesoemah is organizing relief efforts for women.

Helping tsunami survivors is also a way to practice the Buddhist principles of compassion and kindness.

Roberts, a 62-year-old father of two grown children, has practiced Buddhism since he lived in Singapore about nine years ago. His first teacher there was a prominent Sri Lankan monk.

Because of that connection, and because Roberts and abbots at three local Buddhist temples decided that impoverished Sri Lanka may be less able to rebound on its own, they are focusing their efforts there.

Roberts, director of the Buddhist Council of the Northwest, a primarily Asian Buddhist group, is working with the abbots at Atammayatarama Buddhist Monastery in Woodinville, Co Lam Vietnamese Buddhist Temple in Seattle, and Sarana International Buddhist Center in Tukwila to raise money to build 100 houses on 10 acres in Sri Lanka.

So far, they've raised $19,000 from Buddhist groups — both Eastern and Western — around the Northwest.

"By practicing these things, "we find a way out of the grief and despair that burdens us."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com