16 October 2009
Diwali Lights Symbolize Search for Knowledge and Goodness
Interview with Anju Bhargava on celebrating Diwali in America
On the occasion of Diwali, one of the most popular festivals in India, celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, Talking Faith interviewed Anju Bhargava, senior vice president at Bank of America. She is currently a member of President Obama's Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is a convener of Hindu American Seva Charities. Bhargava is a graduate of Stella Maris College, the University of Madras, in India and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Rutgers University, with training at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, American University, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Dale Carnegie Institute. Read more about her on her Web site.
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Question: How do you celebrate Diwali?
Bhargava: Diwali or Deepavali means spending time with family and friends, praying for prosperity for all, sharing mithais (sweets), lighting the house with diyas/deepams candles and lights. It is bringing light into our lives symbolizing victory of good over evil. Diwali celebrations in the U.S. start five days earlier. This year, I started our observations at the White House. We had a council meeting and then I met the president and attended the Diwali celebration at the White House. It was an exhilarating event where I felt totally accepted in my country, America.
Diwali is celebrated by all of Dharmic traditions (Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists) and is the most popular festival of the people of and in India. Homes are decorated with diyas and lights. A variety of food is cooked. Prayers are offered. For businesses and many communities it is marked as a New Year on the Hindu calendars. The spiritual significance is that outwardly the light symbolizes the search for knowledge and goodness while the inner Divine removes the darkness of ignorance and erroneous values. And the president aptly said in his address, one should not forget the joyous Diwali celebrations — the fireworks lighting up the dark skies of a new moon night, the exchange of gifts and the savored sweets.
For me, the next few days will be spent preparing (cooking, cleaning) for the Diwali and then celebrating with friends and family. We will put lights around the house to observe the victory of good over evil; symbolically it is also the illumination within that removes darkness of ignorance. On Friday evening, I will celebrate with the children who attend Livingston’s Indian School to learn language and culture. The children will share their learning of Diwali and we will distribute ladoos (sweets) to them. On Saturday morning, my daughter and I will cook the traditional sweets and we will visit our friends to share the mithais. In the evening, we will light lamps around the house, do our puja invoking prosperity for all, and have dinner with our friends. A time for prayers and a time for merriment!
Q: How is Diwali celebrated in the United States?
A: In the last three decades, I have witnessed a great change in the way Diwali is celebrated and observed in the U.S. Diwali celebrations have become more and more accepted publically. When I first came to the U.S. at a relatively young age, I did not know much about the customs, nor did our neighbors and co-workers. As the community got comfortable and learned how to celebrate Diwali, collectively we shared with our neighbors, with the teachers in the schools, and our children’s classmates, and slowly we organized public celebrations with fireworks, as at the Seaport in New York and in communities around the country.
Essentially, the celebrations in the U.S. and India are similar; however, in America, most of our celebrations are over the weekend when people can celebrate, whereas in India they happen throughout the week. Additionally, in India, since it is a major national holiday the celebrations are ubiquitous. Here in America, we are still developing an infrastructure. Pluralism and tolerance of diverse religions are prevalent in both the countries and are the overriding common ground on which we stand.
Q: How do you live your Hindu faith in the United States? Is it difficult?
A: Coming to a new country at a time when there was practically no faith-based infrastructure made us take a fresh look at what it meant to be a Hindu. I wondered, what is Hinduism? What do I want to pass on to my child? How do we want to practice when we initially had limited access to books, religious icons and institutions?
This fresh evaluation made me sift through and understand many dimensions of Hinduism. I could not take my faith for granted. I had to dig deep and connect with the Vedantic roots to comprehend the complexity of the faith. In the process I became a pujari and wanted to live my life by the principles of Sanatana Dharma (Universal Principles). I became a member of my town’s Interfaith Clergy Association and continue to learn about other faiths and share my own.
I am blessed. In some ways, the path was laid for me by the sages who came to America over 100 years ago — Swami Vivekananda, Parmahansa Yogananda — as well as by the Transcendentalists — Emerson, Thoreau — and now the New Age Gurus — Ram Dass and Deepak Chopra.
In today’s America, many Vedantic Hindu practices have become mainstream — Yoga, meditation. More and more people are becoming aware of the health benefits of vegetarianism. Diversity best practices are becoming prevalent not only at the corporate levels, the marketplace, but in the schoolyards and neighborhoods. There is a growing openness to learning and, by and large, my practices are not perceived to be alien and I feel fully accepted.
Q: As a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, what challenges do you see regarding interfaith understanding?
A: Once upon a time, it was the elite or the adventurers who travelled the world to explore different cultures. Globalization is bringing many more diverse people with differing backgrounds and beliefs closer together. Today the world is everywhere — here and there — in all corners. And we see religion, differing faiths and viewpoints playing a central role in today’s iconic cultural differences.
I believe, essentially, that all religions are committed to the common values of peace, tolerance, wisdom, compassionate service and love for all creation. Often the diverse beliefs and observances, the surface outward practices, magnify differences. They can come in the way of developing deeper common ground to build a clear and authentic understanding of the other viewpoint. It is only on the deeper ground we experience this vast presence of energy and intelligence that we can recognize, as Dr. [Martin Luther] King said, that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” In this global world, I see the Diaspora playing a critical role in global diplomacy by building bridges.
This summer, I visited India and met with interfaith youth and interfaith leaders in Chennai. I shared with them my own story of integration as a Hindu minority in the U.S. and the tolerance and acceptance I have experienced and found a complementary resonance. For example: The town of Livingston, New Jersey, where I live and have raised my daughter, has seen a demographic change. Though most established residents accepted the newcomers, I realized that they did not interact and understand each other well. So we expanded the Interfaith Service. We honored Dr. King as a person who not only brought together the African-American community, but also welcomed people from all races and walks of life to work for equality and justice.
I feel everyone in America has benefited from the civil rights movement and the observance is a reminder of the ideals for which America stands. In the township services, I indicated this observance also recognized that thoughts flow freely across all man-made borders and know no limitations. The Civil Disobedience concept moved from Thoreau to Gandhi to King and transcended domestic and global barriers. In a metaphorical replication of this spirit, the Day of Service and the Interfaith Service I had helped start have become an ongoing tradition in town and keep expanding the scope of inclusion.
This summer as a part of the President’s Call to Serve we organized the Hindu-American community and for the first time coordinated national seva projects. Seva or compassionate service is an integral part of our sadhana, our spiritual practice. The faith-based community and temples became the base for conducting over 1,001 service projects. They covered a wide range from health camps, feeding the homeless to crocheting for the soldiers in Iraq.
My Indian audience related with the experiences. The Hindus, Muslims and Christians in India found it educational to see how we are integrating, to understand what it means to be an Indian/Asian/Hindu American, and a minority; of how we are creating a new cultural and social infrastructure. (See my Wall Street Journal article on this.) We also recognized that pluralism and tolerance is a common tradition between the two countries and could be an important strategic initiative. Diwali is a holiday that is celebrated by the whole country in India. America is a deeply religious country and is becoming more pluralistic as it celebrates Diwali in local communities nationally and at the White House.
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