Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

T&T’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al fab­ric con­tin­ues to shine as a “liv­ing ex­am­ple” of how di­verse com­mu­ni­ties can co-ex­ist and flour­ish to­geth­er.

This was the mes­sage de­liv­ered by Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), as the or­gan­i­sa­tion launched its 38th an­nu­al sev­en-night Ra­mayan Yagna at its Ch­agua­nas head­quar­ters on Sun­day.

The Yagna, a deeply spir­i­tu­al ob­ser­vance, serves as the fore­run­ner to the grand Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions, which be­gin on Oc­to­ber 11.

Man­ga­roo em­pha­sised the need for col­lec­tive ef­fort in up­lift­ing the na­tion, not­ing that the theme of this year’s Na­gar, Lo­ka Sam­gra­ha—the Wel­fare of the World, res­onates strong­ly in to­day’s cli­mate.

“In a time when so­ci­eties across the globe face di­vi­sion, en­vi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges and the ero­sion of val­ues, Lo­ka Sam­gra­ha is more rel­e­vant than ever. It calls us to uni­ty over dis­cord, to stew­ard­ship over ex­ploita­tion and to shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty over iso­la­tion. Lo­ka Sam­gra­ha calls us to live with a sense of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that tran­scends self-in­ter­est, urg­ing us to act with com­pas­sion, ser­vice and dhar­ma so that so­ci­ety as a whole may flour­ish.”

He de­scribed the Yagna it­self as a pow­er­ful em­bod­i­ment of this phi­los­o­phy.

“In the sa­cred fire, we of­fer not on­ly grains and ghee but al­so our ego, our self­ish de­sires and our lim­i­ta­tions. In re­turn, we re­ceive clar­i­ty, strength and the re­solve to serve hu­man­i­ty.”

Be­yond the rit­u­als, Man­ga­roo urged cit­i­zens to em­brace their du­ty to­wards one an­oth­er and the wider world. He called for re­spect with­in com­mu­ni­ties, en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, the up­lift­ing of T&T, and the preser­va­tion of Hin­du tra­di­tions, all while con­tribut­ing to the com­mon good.

“Let us com­mit our­selves to em­body­ing Lo­ka Sam­gra­ha in in­tegri­ty and uni­ty. In do­ing so, we ho­n­our our an­ces­tors, en­rich our present and se­cure a brighter fu­ture for gen­er­a­tions to come.”

This year’s Ra­mayan fea­tures dis­cours­es by Pun­di­ta Gee­ta Vahi­ni (Sep­tem­ber 28–30) and Pun­dit Ab­hedanand Per­sad Shar­ma (Oc­to­ber 1–4), held night­ly from 7 pm.