C
U L T U R E
Diwali
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Each year at the University
of Texas at Austin, the Hindu Students Association puts on a grand celebration
of light that is a perfect fit for the Lone Star State
BY SIVAGAMI NATESAN, AUSTIN
THE TOWER GLOWS ORANGE LIKE THE flame of a lamp illuminating the Austin
skyline. On the campus of the University of Texas, one of America’s finer
public institutions, the iconic UT Tower serves as a temple of higher learning.
Today the tower has literally been converted into a temple—a Hindu temple—the
three arches at the base serving as shrines for Ganesha, Lakshmi and Saraswati.
The steps are decorated with little lamps forming the shapes of an Aum and a
swastika. It is a cloudless, moonless, starlit night. The flame of the tower
glows orange today in honor of the festival. The stage is set for Diwali,
Texas-style, hosted by the Hindu Students Association. This is one of the
largest campuses in the United States, and approximately 3,000 of its 51,000
students are of Indian origin.
Celebration of faith is central to all cultures in
all times. Adapting these celebrations to suit a different place and time is
central to the sustaining of a culture. Here at UT, a dynamic group of students
make this possible each year with their celebrations of Diwali, Holi and
Navaratri. “It helps us tie back to our roots and express Hinduism in our own
student way,” says Eesha Gulati, a fourth-year undergraduate in communications
and South Asian studies. Kokila Priya Muthu raman, a graduate who served on the
executive committee of the Hindu Students Association during her four years
here, explains, “The intent of this celebration is to share our culture with
people who are not familiar with it. We want to share a part of who we are and
increase awareness of Hinduism on campus.”
The steady stream of guests entering the mall are
greeted by students wishing them “Happy Diwali” and putting tilak on their
foreheads. Each person is given a small plate decorated with Indian motifs,
holding a bag of akshata (unbroken, turmeric-stained rice) and a bookmark with
the dearly familiar Ravi Varma rendition of Lakshmi standing on a lotus. On the
bookmark is a verse from the Devi Bhagavatam: “We meditate upon that
principle of sentience reflected in all living beings that is the cause of the
universe. May that Goddess, in the form of consciousness, inspire our
thoughts.”
The guests remove their shoes at the lower level
of the south mall and walk up steps decorated with painted pots upturned to
serve as bases for a line of diyas (lamps). The floor of the upper level has
been lined with tarpaulin and white sheets designating the seating area. In
front of the temporary temple, facing the havan kund (ceremonial fire pit),
sits Brahmachari Girish Chaitanya, the acharya of Chinmaya Mission Austin. Four
students are seated around the havan with him: Naveen Pattisapu, Tara Sharma,
Atul Gupta and Jennifer Chou. Arjun Adapalli and Vishaal Sapuram lead bhajans,
Arjun strumming his guitar, as people flow in to join the event.
As on any campus, the rainbow of students from
many backgrounds is well represented. Some are perfectly dressed in impeccable,
traditional Indian clothes; others come straight from their lab or study group
wearing shorts and t-shirts. Troy Johnson, a construction planner with the
university and part-time student, is attending for his second year. “It gives
me the opportunity to experience a different culture without going to India,”
he says.
A few families
bring their young children. Neha Patel is attending with her brother Paras and
his wife, their two children and a cousin. “We are not very active in the
community, and we have moved to Austin, away from our home in Houston, so this
event gives us an opportunity to participate.” Sreenivaas, a graduate student
in electrical and computer engineering, bows intently at the shrine. He is away
from his home in Chennai for the first time. “I have been so connected to my
roots in India for 23 years. I do my daily puja. It is special to have a havan
for Diwali.”
While India remains the spiritual substratum for
us all, the homes of the Indian diaspora are all over the world. That each of
us has managed to make and sustain our homes retaining the Indian ethos is a
testament to the strength of this culture that pervades our being socially,
religiously and culturally. This was brought home by young Puja Patel, a
first-year student working in the rangoli booth that the students have set up.
“Each year my family meets for Diwali, and we do a big puja. I treasure the job
of decorating the front of our home with rangoli. This year, for the first
time, I am away from home. Working in the rangoli booth at this event is my way
of connecting what I did at home with where I am on campus.”
In the storytelling booth, Parth Bhatt, a jun ior
in economics and mathematics, enacts the story of Bali and Sugreeva, inviting
fellow students to join in. In another booth the students craft thorans
(hanging decorations) for the thresholds of their dorm rooms. At the bazaar
booth, the students purchase small trinkets with tokens earned from
participating in the other booths. This is a labor-intensive event, with over
60 volunteers carefully programmed into half-hour slots.
Dr. Soncia Reagins-Lilly, Senior Associate Vice
President for Student Affairs and the Dean of Students at UT, explains that
student events on this campus are entirely student- driven: “If the students
are willing to advocate for what they want, the university is willing to
support it.” The students must work with various university offices and private
sponsors to come up with funding for the event. They are also responsible for
all logistics— audio-visual, furniture, tents for the booths and activities,
etc.—and for obtaining the required permits from the university, fire marshal
and police department.
In 2002, when
Varun Mehta came to UT, Navaratri was the more public event on the campus. On
the weekend closest to Diwali, some 150 students would gather in a covered area
on campus and sing bhajans. “I come from a tradition where Diwali is huge,”
says Varun, a co-founder of the Hindu Students Association. “It was important
to me that Diwali be celebrated on the actual date rather than on a convenient
weekend. Here we were, students on a campus with nowhere to celebrate on Diwali
day. On the weekend most students went home anyway.”
For Varun and his fellow students this festival
meant a puja, fireworks and new clothes. Today the students hand out
custom-printed T-shirts for publicity prior to the event. They arrange for a
professional fireworks display that is shot from the school’s famed clocktower,
lighting up the night sky and the faces of the delighted crowd—celebrating the
victory of light over darkness, of knowledge over ignorance. The university
only permits fireworks to be shot from the tower on one other occasion, and
that is graduation night in May.
Amulya Aradhyula is a third-year student who
bicycled to the event in her traditional ghagra outfit. She deeply
appreciates the unifying nature of the event. Harold Wardlaw, a physics
student, recounts, “I was first exposed to India only after coming to this
campus. Now I cannot get enough of it. After coming here, I have worked in Delhi
and am currently looking at internships in Pune. I cannot wait to go back!”
Tara Boggaram, a student of anthropology and German, grew up in a small town in
Texas. “I was not plugged into things Indian,” she shares. “A celebration like
this brings young Indian students and their friends together to celebrate on
campus.”
Accessibility
is the key to sustaining Indian culture and sharing it confidently and proudly
with the general public. While most families attend local temples for their
Diwali celebrations, Vijay and Pratima Kumar choose to bring their two
daughters to this celebration each year. “We delight in our children knowing
that their celebrations are so accepted on an American university campus,” they
explain. They have been sponsoring the cost of the havan at this event for the
last few years. The Gujarati Samaj of Austin and the Dodia family, whose son
attends the university, sponsored the bookmarks given out to the guests.
Brahmachari Girishji welcomes the gathering and
thanks the Hindu Students Association for inviting him to preside over the
havan. He explains the perspective of Indian students growing up in America,
providing a brief explanation of Diwali: on this, the darkest night of the
year, we seek to make sense of the world around us with the light of
understanding. “Today in your classroom it is possible that the lecture went
over your head.” A few knowing giggles ripple through the crowd. “After class
you turned to your friend and asked, ‘Can you please shed some light on what
happened in class?’ It is this light in the form of knowledge that we seek to
dispel our ignorance.”
Vice President Joe Biden spoke beautifully of that
light in his address this year at the White House celebration of India’s
Festival of Lights: “Folks, one thing that Diwali reminds us of is that there
is a light within all of us, a light of knowledge and compassion, a light that
empowers us to do good—to, as Abraham Lincoln said, respond to our better
angels.... Every year, Diwali reminds us of the fundamental human bonds that
unite us, which are much more powerful than those things that divide us. Right
now people of four major faiths are celebrating Diwali. Millions of Hindus,
Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists in India and here in America are lighting lamps in
their homes, reflecting on a year gone by and praying, as we all are here, for
a good year to come.”
Beginning the rites, Brahmachari Girishji
methodically explains the procedure and philosophy of each step of the havan to
the audience. Any auspicious beginning starts with Ganesha, the elephant-headed
Remover of Obstacles. We cannot proceed with any activity and expect success
without removing the obstacles in our own mind. Next we pay respect to our
lineage of teachers. He asks the audience to seek the blessings of each one’s
lineage of teachers, a step whose importance is underlined on a university
campus. He pays respect to his guru, Swami Chinmayananda, by quoting him:
“Religion without philosophy is superstition. And philosophy without religion
is sheer madness.”
He explains why Lakshmi havan is performed for
Diwali: “Some people may look at Mother Lakshmi as just the green stuff in our
pockets. She is much more than that. Lakshmi must be seen as the true
prosperity of human life, the prosperity of wisdom.”
Each part of this universe is invoked in this
havan. The planets are represented in betel nuts placed next to the kund. The
embodied soul is represented by the kalasha (copper pot) filled with water; the
human body is made up of the five elements, predominantly water. The thread
tied around the kalasha represents the connection between the gross and the
subtle bodies; it has at least 72 lines appearing with a prescribed number of
intersections, representing the 72,000 subtle nerves in a human body—the channels
through which the pranas, or vital forces, flow. It is into this kalasha of our
own being that we welcome Lakshmi as the true prosperity of the human body and
mind.
After
describing and then chanting the ceremonial sankalpa (expression of intent),
Brahmachari Girishji explains, “Together we resolve to bring prosperity to the
professors, students and staff of the university, represented by these four
yajamans (officiants) seated here on either side of the havan kund.” He
instructs, “When I say ‘swaha,’ you guys take a piece of dry coconut and
place it in the fire. For those of you participating in the crowd, you guys
take a few grains of akshata and place it on your Lakshmi bookmark.” His casual
lingo reveals his own background of having grown up in the United States.
Through his personal experience, he understands the mindset of a Hindu student
on an American campus.
The fire grows steadily as he chants and explains
the Purusha Suktam, an ancient hymn from the Rig Veda. He
describes how the universe came out of fire and that the flames are responsible
for conveying the prayers and offerings of the havan from this manifest world
to the unmanifest world. As the fire peaks during the purnahuti (final
offering), he directs the crowd to come forward, offer small pieces of dried
coconut and accept prasad from the yajamans. The arati song, signaling the end
of the rites, is played over the public address system while people young and
old take turns offering arati at the three shrines at the base of the tower.
The crowd moves down one level to the lower part
of the mall, clearing a stage for the cultural program. Pooja Raman, a
secondyear student in the Business Honors program, performs a traditional
Ganesha Vandanam, saying later that she couldn’t believe she was dancing under
the university tower, looking directly across at the State Capitol dome. Dhivya
Manogaran dances the glory of Shri Rama, befitting the event of Diwali. Vishaal
Sapuram, a young classical singer and chitra vina player who graduated in
December, performs a beautiful song.
Then it is time for the much-anticipated
fireworks. “We completed our puja at home and then came here for the
fireworks,” says an Indian graduate student who brought his American wife and
two young children, dressed perfectly in dhoti and ghagra. Their eyes reflect
the scintillating fireworks.
The crowd mills around the tent where dinner is
being served. There is a nominal charge, since the students were unable to get
the food sponsored. The menu is representative of the celebration, Indian in
essence but with a twist of imagination: paneer tikka burritos, jeera rice,
naan, raita and chilled Mexican-style cucumber drinks made by a team of
students. On a college campus, many people show up primarily for the cheap
food!
There are so many ways to celebrate Diwali, even
right here in middle America. Inspired students like those at the University of
Texas have brought the celebrations right into the campus mall, the center of
their university community. Brahmachari Girishji puts the event in perspective
for the guests: “This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. What
is true freedom? Knowledge is the greatest freedom we have.” His words echo the
line etched in stone above him on the base of the tower in giant, bold letters:
“Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free.”
Events like this Diwali celebration are held on
campuses big and small all over the world where the Indian diaspora has
extended. More and more, Americans and those of other cultures are coming to
realize that their own deepest convictions have been expressed in Hindu thought
since time immemorial. The world is truly one.
Om Tat Sat
(My humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
ji, Satguru Bodhianatha Velayanswami ji, Hinduism
Today for the collection)
(The Blog is reverently for all the seekers of truth,
lovers of wisdom and to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the
spiritual path and also this is purely a non-commercial blog)
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