{"id":20,"date":"2009-11-18T16:15:09","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T16:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/diwali-at-the-chapel.html"},"modified":"2009-11-18T16:15:09","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T16:15:09","slug":"diwali-at-the-chapel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/diwali-at-the-chapel.html","title":{"rendered":"Diwali at the Chapel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"princeton_diwali.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Apologies for my hiatus from blogging on OSO. I have spent the last week busily engaged in hosting a special Diwali celebration at Princeton University (where, as my day job, I direct the University’s newly created Hindu Life Program). The event, held on Saturday November 14, was wonderful — a magical evening of shared devotion, learning, and celebration. <\/p>\n

Lots of Hindu student groups at colleges and universities celebrate Diwali. What made Princeton’s celebration unique, though, was that this celebration was hosted by the institution’s Office of Religious Life and held right in University Chapel —  “a truly ecumenical and inter-religious worship space” according to its website —  which is home to Opening Exercises and Baccalaureate, and has hosted guest preachers like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. <\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt from the wire services about the event:<\/p>\n

Princeton University will host its official celebration of the Hindu
\nfestival of Diwali at the University Chapel on November 14, 2009. The
\nDiwali celebration is hosted by the University’s Office of Religious
\nLife (ORL) and spearheaded by the University’s recently created Hindu
\nLife Program. The program was launched last year as a pilot; this fall,
\nPrinceton made the program a permanent part of the ORL and hired Vineet
\nChander to be a full-time Coordinator for Hindu Life. The unique
\nappointment makes Chander the first Hindu chaplain in the more than two
\nhundred year history of the prestigious University. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chandler
\n[sic] said, “One of the aspects of the celebration that we’re most excited
\nabout is the opportunity that it provides for guests to experience
\nsomething new and expand their horizons. Last year, I met guests who
\nregularly attend Hindu services at the Chapel, but who had never
\nwitnessed Hindu worship. At the same time, I met members of the Indian
\ncommunity who had lived in Princeton for decades but had never set foot
\nin the Chapel. To bring folks like this together under a common banner
\nwas extremely gratifying.”<\/p>\n

(source: Hindu Press International<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n\"princeton_diwali_mayapuris.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>The festivities included offerings from The Mayapuris<\/a>,
\na talented young Kirtan group, as well as from some of Princeton’s
\nhomegrown talent — dances by members of Kalaa, our Indian classical
\ndance company; singing by Raaganjali, our student Bhajan group; and
\ndance and musical performances from two faculty members. <\/p>\n

Princeton’s
\nVice President for Campus Life,  Janet Dickerson (a lady who — as far
\nas I am concerned — defines class, grace, and strong compassionate
\nleadership) was the VIP guest of honor and lit the ceremonial diya<\/i>. I shared a brief textual reflection, and we conducted an arati<\/i> (a Hindu worship service) in the Chapel’s sanctum sanctorum.<\/p>\n

\"princeton_diwali_vpdickerson.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Assisting Vice President Janet Dickerson in lighting the<\/i> diya.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\"princeton_diwali_ramnath.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Priest<\/i> Ramnath Subramanium blows the conch shell<\/i>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\"princeton_diwali_vineet.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Delivering the <\/i>pravachan (reflection)  <\/i><\/div>\n

This was the second year I’ve had the pleasure of helping to put on
\nthis event, and it seems well on its way to becoming a Princeton
\ntradition.<\/p>\n

Personally, this event was also a milestone for me. Like President
\nObama’s historic Diwali message and diya-lighting<\/a>, I think that events
\nlike the Chapel celebration help to earn Hindus a place in the
\nmainstream, and provide a sharp contrast to my own experience coming of
\nage as a Hindu-American <\/p>\n

When my parents arrived to the United States almost forty years ago,
\nthere was practically no Hindu community in this country. There were
\nvery few temples, little knowledge about thefaith, and no
\nreal representation of Hinduism in mainstream American institutions
\nlike universities.  We struggled to mark Diwali the best we could, but
\nI always felt that it was just another reminder of feeling — even
\nthough my sister and I were born in America — like strangers in a
\nstrange land.  Because Hindus follow a lunar calendar, the day is
\nobserved on a different day each year, and often fell in the middle of
\nthe work-week or when students are in the thick of midterms. Most of my
\nDiwali memories from my own college days involve modest gatherings with
\nother students in a dorm or student lounge or sometimes just taking a
\nstudy break long enough to light a candle and say a few paryers, alone
\nin my room.<\/p>\n

Are things changing?  In acknowledging Diwali in the university’s
\nshared sacred space, Princeton seems to be saying “Yes.” I truly
\nbelieve that with each candle lit in the Chapel on Saturday night, the
\nHindu-American community grew a little bit older, wiser, and stronger. <\/p>\n

And despite this past week’s lack of sleep, the stress, and the hiatus
\nfrom blogging (again, apologies) — I feel both blessed and humbled to
\nbe allowed to play a role.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apologies for my hiatus from blogging on OSO. I have spent the last week busily engaged in hosting a special Diwali celebration at Princeton University (where, as my day job, I direct the University’s newly created Hindu Life Program). 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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}