Washington Post:Gita and Peace in the Middle East

[Guest guest]

Renewing Ties to Ancient Text

 

By Candace Rondeaux

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 3, 2006; Page C11

"Each morning, the ceremony began with prayers and readings from the

Bhagavad Gita, and offerings were made before a white cement fire

pit festooned with flowers, pineapples, coconuts, incense and ornate

ceremonial pots of water."Fire is a vehicle conveying our offerings

to God. For us it is kind of like the postal services, where our

messages are delivered express," said N. Swamy Subramanian,

president of the temple's board.

As the sun set over the serene temple gardens, the spiritual leader

reflected on the lessons of peace contained in the Bhagavad Gita. It

is no coincidence, he said, that Israel signed a temporary cease-

fire with Lebanon just a few days after the ceremony at the temple

began."

 

 

The procession begins with a blast of pipes and a burst of drums.

Men and women in white robes and bright leis begin singing as a car

pulls into the parking lot. Moments later, a slight man with a

balding pate and sparkling eyes steps out of the back seat of a

silver sedan, smiles sweetly and waves to the crowd.

 

With silver platters loaded with offertory fruit and incense in

hand, the crowd falls in line behind him as he slowly makes his way

to an entrance to the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple. Swami Dayananda

Saraswati has arrived, and it's time for another lesson on the

teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the holy verses at the core of the

Hindu faith.

 

 

There is a festive air at the temple, a spiritual hub for about

18,000 Hindus across the Washington area. With its soaring white

columns adorned with hand-carved Hindu gods, the temple rises like a

baker's confection above the outer edge of Lanham, cutting a regal

figure against a clear blue sky. Its presence in the heart of a

patch of otherwise ordinary suburban ranch houses seems almost

incongruous.

 

Temple worshipers welcomed Saraswati, 76, and Hindu scholar and

spiritual leader Savya Sachi Swamiji, 87, as part of the Bhagavad

Gita Jnana Yagyam, a 10-day August event that was equal parts

celebration of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy book, and a

ceremony for world peace and prosperity.

 

A key spiritual leader for the temple, Savya Sachi Swamiji traveled

from his home in Karnataka, a state in southern India, for the event

that temple members began planning more than a year ago. The

milestone celebration kicked off a new era for the 22-year-old

temple, which took several years to construct, signaling renewed

efforts to revisit the core text of Hinduism and to introduce

younger members to the lessons of the Bhagavad Gita.

 

Each morning, the ceremony began with prayers and readings from the

Bhagavad Gita, and offerings were made before a white cement fire

pit festooned with flowers, pineapples, coconuts, incense and ornate

ceremonial pots of water.

 

"Fire is a vehicle conveying our offerings to God. For us it is kind

of like the postal services, where our messages are delivered

express," said N. Swamy Subramanian, president of the temple's board.

 

Devotees then carried a metal statue of the Hindu god Krishna into

the temple. There, Saraswati, who splits his time between India and

a Hindu hermitage in Pennsylvania, gave a lecture on the 18 chapters

of the Bhagavad Gita. The ceremony and religious lectures drew

roughly 500 people a day.

 

As the sun set over the serene temple gardens, the spiritual leader

reflected on the lessons of peace contained in the Bhagavad Gita. It

is no coincidence, he said, that Israel signed a temporary cease-

fire with Lebanon just a few days after the ceremony at the temple

began.

 

"In this world, there is a lot of disharmony," he said. "To bring

about harmony among all people in all nations, we have this ceremony

for universal peace. It is not just for the Washington area that we

pray but for the whole world."

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