Religion, politics, Shivratri 2012
Shivratri was Monday.. I stayed home. I know many devout devotees of Lord Shiva went to temple.. and some not so devout devotees of Lord Shiva also went and then there were others who went because it would look bad if they did not go.
I heard that Shivratri should have been celebrated Sunday night.. but that is how it goes with our Hindu calendars.. depending where you are, who taught you, we get all these wonderful nuances of faith and ritual.
Nothing wrong with that..
A lot of people go to the Cove and John Ashram .. big celebrations there and I am sure during the days when people felt that Hinduism was under threat, the Ashram flourished...
And so it is , Hinduism is now closely aligned with the "Indian' party.. not only quietly supporting but celebrating the style of leadership which has us constantly in fear and behind where we could have been as a society.
The Hindu organisations have always been political in Guyana
It is no secret that the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha is aligned proudly with the PPP. In the old days , the Pandits' Council and Maha Sabha never spoke against the PNC . Other Hindu leaders like Swami Aksharananda seem to have caved in to the populist Hindu support of the PPP (and to the fear of the return of the bad old days of the PNC).. so there is no more public objection to the oppression and corruption.
Shivratri .. worship of Lord Shiva, the destroyer.. Cove and John Ashram sought to honour former President Jagdeo. Hinduism is diverse like that.. you could pray to who you want. Maybe it is that the Hindus who attend the Ashram have benefited from Mr Jagdeo's policies.. that there is no poverty around them, that the police who serve them do not take bribes from them, that the places they go for health care are efficient, modern and up to date. Maybe there is a higher literacy rate among the Hindus who attend the Ashram, and that the experience of poverty is different and that the Hindus are grateful to Mr Jagdeo for allowing Roger Khan to rescue them from the terror, without ever having any investigation into the cause of that terror.. or of trying to reform the police force which is supposed to serve them.
Hinduism is diverse like that.. we are allowed freedom in our worship and in our selection of who to worship. Some of us have to keep our distance from our Hindu sanghs.. because we could end up being part of the support for the oppressive leadership.
While reflecting on the style of leadership which some Hindus in Guyana choose to revere, it was good to note that in Campbelville.. one street.. some quiet revolutions were going as the chowtaal gole I normally sing with.. the gole was able to move between different mandirs.. including a mandir whose history is one of rejection of the PPP oppression. The young members of the gole were happy to be able to go .. freely and without fear that they would be told that they should not go.. and it was as it should be.. one gole, three mandirs in the Community.. and the gole sang everywhere. This happened because of one young man's desire to move people out of the fear they had at going to 'certain places'.
Lord Shiva blessed us in different ways... His blessings are no doubt without discrimination. We Hindus in our diversity should remember.. that we will never prosper though when other law abiding citizens do not have access to the prosperity which is supposed to belong to all of us.
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