SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ch­agua­nas West, Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly MP, has said there are many paths on the road of wor­ship­ping God.

At the time, the Ch­agua­nas West MP was de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at Di­vali Na­gar Cel­e­bra­tions on Mon­day 17 Oc­to­ber 2022.

“I in­vite you to ex­plore with me the im­pli­ca­tions of, and rea­son­ing be­hind, the idea that The Many are Sim­ply Ap­pear­ances of the One,” he told those gath­ered at the event.

The theme of this year’s Na­gar is “Hin­du Panths”. “Panth”, al­so known as “Pan­than”, is the San­skrit word for “Path”.

Kutchipudi dancer Sunil Ramnath performs at the Divali Nagar on Monday 17 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Ac­cord­ing to MP Ram­bal­ly, Panth de­notes a sect or a par­tic­u­lar path of Hin­duism, and there are many such paths.

“These dif­fer­ing sects, there­fore, must be un­der­stood as sim­ply dif­fer­ent meth­ods that have been en­gi­neered, all with the goal of em­brac­ing the One Supreme Re­al­i­ty,” he said.

“Our scrip­tures de­clare, ‘Ekam Sat Vipra Bahu­da Vadan­ti’. This means the Truth is One, and the Wise call it by dif­fer­ent names,” he ob­served.  “We im­me­di­ate­ly get the sense that Hin­duism does not de­mand a one-size-fits-all kind of ap­proach. That is why it is an Eter­nal Re­li­gion—it caters to all types and for all times, and I dare­say, in­to for all Eter­ni­ty.”

Members of the Radha Krishna Dance Group perform at the Divali Nagar on Monday 17 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

“Hin­duism, or Sanatan Dhar­ma, can nev­er be de­scribed as a sin­gu­lar sys­tem of be­lief and prac­tice. Rather, it is eclec­tic. It is a chaot­ic, yet beau­ti­ful song, much like birds singing in com­pe­ti­tion, each singing with a full­ness of per­son­al ex­pres­sion. Each singing in its own self-de­rived glo­ry. Each cel­e­brat­ing life. Each cel­e­brat­ing Cre­ation and Cre­ator,” MP Ram­bal­ly de­clared.

He added: “This choir, like Sanatan Dhar­ma, lifts your spir­it like noth­ing else, sim­ply be­cause you know there is al­ways a place in it for you. This Great Re­li­gion caters for the likes of you and me, and just about every type of hu­man be­ing that ex­ists in this Uni­verse.”

His wheelchair did not prevent vocalist Bhudram Holass from mesmerising the audience during his performance of a classical Taan song, at the Divali Nagar on Monday 17 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Ram­bal­ly al­so paid trib­ute to Dr De­ok­ien­anan Shar­ma, the out­go­ing pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), for his ded­i­ca­tion to­wards the NCIC and the growth of the Di­vali Na­gar.

The evening fea­tured the tal­ents of Akash Kissoon & Group, Char­lie Boys Tas­sa Group, folksinger Rook­m­i­nee Beepath, Budhram Ho­las, Kutchipu­di Dancer Sunil Ram­nath, and the  Rad­ha Kr­ish­na Dance Group.