An organization calling itself the Southern Baptists International Mission Board has just published a pamphlet asking its laity to pray for the conversion of Hindus during Diwali. The language used in the book is offensive and insensitive, hopelessly out of character with the largely secular American society.

The pamphlet begins by saying: ``More than 900 million people are lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism,'' and goes on to ask Southern Baptists to ``pray that Hindus who celebrate the festival of lights would become aware of the darkness in their hearts that no lamp can dispel.''

Asked to comment, a White House spokesman said: ``The President (Bill Clinton) believes very strongly that one of our great strengths as anation is our diversity of religion and cultures and our tolerance for those who have different beliefs from our own.''

Uma Mysorekar, Secretary-Treasurer of the Council of Hindu temples, said that the ideas contained in the guide are ``not only absurd but also ignorant. I do not think Jesus himself would have said not to respect other religions.''

According to The Washington Post, which first reported the story yesterday, the board plans to distribute the prayer ``guide'' to its 40,000 churches beginning Friday, in time for the celebrations in late October.

According to the Post, the book claims that Hindus are living in ``spriritual darkness'' and are ``slaves bound by fear and tradition to false gods.''

The Southern Baptists are not any fringe group. Established in 1845, the Convention claims a following of more than 15 million in the United States alone and is the second-largest denomination here. They also claim to sponsor about 5,000 home missionaries serving the United States, Canada, Guam andthe Caribbean, as well as more than 4,000 foreign missionaries in 126 nations of the world. They also count President Clinton among their followers.