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Selected Articles from Shri Raviji, Trinidad

1. Hindu Women Pushing Ahead - Raviji
2. Heralding the Indian Diaspora - Raviji

■ Hindu Women Pushing Ahead

Author: Raviji
Source: Trinidad Guardian, Sat., Dec. 14, 2002

Two women are at the centre of Hindu affairs this weekend. Km. Maya Devi Maharaj has been conducting a Geetaa Jnaan Yagna at Hindu Prachar Kendra in commemoration of Geeta Jayanti. It ends tonight. The theme of the Yagna is, ‘Why Prayer’?

Also, early tomorrow morning devotees will assemble at the final chapter in a yearlong pilgrimage called Bhakti Yaatra. Bhakti Yaatra is the dream of Smt. Chandra Katwaroo of Hindusthan in South Trinidad. She is a woman of great bhakti-devotion and abundant spirit of selfless service. She is a great singer and loves to sing Ramayan. But she can do much more. She also has the imagination and initiative to so do. And she has the full support of her husband, Ram and many followers across the country.

Prof Vijay Naraynsingh inaugurated Bhakti Yaatraa on the first Sunday this year at Green Street Mandir, Tunapuna. Since then, a large contingent of singers, musicians and devotees have been participating in this devotional exercise throughout the country. While the yaatra was hosted mainly at mandirs, some backed out, rejecting a woman in this role.

Chandra said, “It was surprised but it was a challenge. I have forgiven them. I do not know how my being a woman makes me less or unfit for God’s work. How can one be unfit for prayer or for the conduct of prayer? ”

Shri Krishna calls upon all to freely pursue His grace. How much more will Krishna  rejoice whenever anyone, man or woman, takes His message to the people.  Yes, He spoke directly to Arjun, a male, but no one will doubt that Arjun was only a ‘nimit’ –an instrument. In the Ramayan, the lowly-born vulture, Kaagbhusundi, given voice by Divine grace, explained what gives value to a body, “EHI TAN RAAM BHAGATI MAIN PAAYEE | TA TEIN MOHI MAMTAAA ADHIKAAEE ||U43\1 This form is very special to me, because it is in this form I found Shri Ram.” Kagbhusundi is one of the relators of the Holy Ramayan.

Maya Devi’s picks up the thread here. The seed verse for the yagna is. “MATCHCHITAH SARVA DURGAANI, MAT PRASAADAAT TARISHYASHI || 18/58, “Fix your mind on Me, by My grace, you will be free of all obstacles.” 

Maya Devi suggests that prayer is a method of both fixing one’s mind on God and a means to receive God’s grace. She said, “In today’s fast-paced and sometimes tragic world, one is aware that something is missing. Each succeeding generation seems to be less equipped with dealing with life. What is the answer? Prayer! Why prayer?

‘There is a Higher Loving Presence that we connect with, through prayer. We are not alone in our individual struggles; we are also guided when faced with confusing paths. Prayer purifies the human psyche; fosters Self-understanding and gives a universal vision of life. The result? Greater happiness, peace and confidence in one’s place in the cosmos.”

Maya, Chandra and other Hindu women must be encourage to pursue learning and teaching of the Hindu worldview. In fact it was created not only by man but also by women, even from the Vedic period.

”Gargi, the wise and learned daughter of Rishi (sage) Vachaknu, was known as Brahmavadini because of her having the knowledge of Brahma-vidya. She participated in a debate with the knower of Brahma, Yajnavalkya in the Yajnasala (place for sacrifices) of King Janaka."

“We get in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad a dialogue between Gargi and Yajnavalkya. Thus it is evident that in ancient India, women used to obtain knowledge of many sciences and disciplines. They also used to participate in public functions and take part in intellectual debates. There used to be no ban of any sort in the field of knowledge, this is established very clearly from the
account of Gargi's life.” 

Manu the lawgiver advocated, “Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards.” (III, 56)

■ Heralding the Indian diaspora

by Raviji

To move forward, we cyan go back, in the bowels of the Fatel Razack

—Mukesh Babooram, Pichakaaree, 1995

May—Indian History and Heritage Month activities in Trinidad and Tobago have already begun and will culminate on may 30, Indian Arrival Day, a public holiday. Massive attendances are normal at several venues. Primary schools, secondary schools, UWI, NGOs and many government offices all host commemorative programmes. A filming crew from India, headed by Dinesh Lakhanpal, was in Trinidad filming a documentary, which will be premiered in Suriname on June 5 at an international conference.

The atrium at Piarco international airport and Hilton Trinidad will showcase Indian Arrival while the Central Bank has this year blanked this important national holiday while it hosts Emancipation as an annual calendrical event.

May, as Indian History and Heritage Month is now being observed in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica. Like in Trinidad and Tobago, the pressure of mass celebration has forced even Indian politicians in Guyana to rethink their position and join in the Indian Arrival bandwagon. This year Guyana President Bharat Jagdeo wore a karat in public for the first time, pressed by the success of mass celebrations by GIHA — Guyana Indian Heritage Association.

The event is growing in Suriname and Barbados. Indo-Surinamese, now resident in large numbers in the Netherlands and Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trinidadians who have been domiciled in the US, Canada and the UK for many years have been organising activities there. The French Caribbean is gearing up for a historic Indian Arrival Day where SS Aurielle docked on Christmas Eve of 1854.

Indentured labourers arrived for the first time in the Caribbean in Guyana in the month of May. It was on May 5, 1838, that the Hesparus and Whitby docked in Guyana bearing labourers from Calcutta. Seven years later, May 30, 1845, the Fatel Razack arrived in Trinidad. Interestingly, indentured labourers also first arrived in Jamaica on May 6, 1845. Lala Rook, the first boat to arrive in Suriname with indentured labourers, overshot May by one week and landed on June 7, 1873, 35 years after Hesparus and Whitby in Guyana. But it is in Trinidad that Indian Arrival first got off. Trinidad celebrated the centenary of Indian Arrival in 1945 at Skinner Park, San Fernando.

Conferences at the UWI on the Indian diaspora during the ‘80s turned the sod and planted the seeds of consciousness, which led to the energy of Indian Arrival. It was approximately 1985 Ramdat Jagessar began the idea of Indian Arrival by sharing photocopies of the list of indentured labourers on Fatel Razack. Suruj Rambachan picked up with the first real large celebrations in Cedros for many years and installed a statue at Manmohan Park.

Camps of Hindu Seva Sangh and Sankeertan processions organised by Longdenville Mandir across the country and Rashtreeya Sankeertan Samagam — a sankeertan procession in Chaguanas — drove the idea of emphasis on the study, celebration, planning and treatment of important issues. It was really, however, an interview on TTT with Suruj Rambachan which exploded Indian Arrival into a national issue.

The Indian diaspora is quite diverse. Amongst this vast diversity, the Jahaajee threat has a special place because of its history and heritage. Jahaajee communities are consolidated and have contributed to the freedom identity and history and building of many independent nations across the globe. In the Caribbean, such nations appear as the only cluster of its kind. In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Martinique and Guadeloupe, Jahaajees thrive in large numbers.

This period is a critical period in the history of this cluster of Caribbean nations in which Indians are in such significant numbers. At this time the clash of civilisations is having important impact on several peoples within these nations. Globalisation is now rewriting the script of Superpowers, what, to speak of small nations like in the Caribbean. These are compelling reasons why Indians in the Caribbean, as all other peoples, must be aware of the challenges the peoples of the Caribbean are facing.

The internal racial conflicts and evidence of Indians in large numbers being targeted by crime and the kidnapping trade in Trinidad and Guyana, make it more compelling for the Indo-Caribbean people to hold counsel. These challenges must be met intelligently, in unity and with a sensitive approach deserved of a plural society.