Address by Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the Diwali Nagar 2015
Speech delivered by opposition leader and UNC political leader the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Thursday November 5, 2015 at the Diwali Nagar.
President of the NCIC Pundit Deokinanan Sharma and Members of the Executive
Revered Pandits
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Friends All
Nam-ASH-kaar.
Tonight we celebrate women on this nagar stage. I am happy to be a part of this.
I bring Greetings from my family and my extended UNC family to you and your families at this holy time as we prepare to celebrate Diwali.
While this is a Hindu festival that our forefathers brought to Trinidad starting in 1845, its significance touches the lives of everyone because the central theme of Diwali has always been the conquest of darkness by light.
I will come back to that but first I want to express my thanks to Dr Deokinanan Sharma and his executive for once again putting together the annual Diwali Nagar, which grows in stature and prominence every year.
Mr President I heartily congratulate you and the NCIC as well as the pioneers of this Divali Nagar for the 29 years of the celebration of the festival as well as for the promotion of T&T that has now fructified with the presence of ZEE TV broadcasting to over 160 countries.
This achievement on your part assisted by Mr Tony Maharaj and his daughter Kiran Maharaj of IETV and 90.5 FM is testimony to the vision that our entrepreneurial citizens have for promoting our country and it is a good example of business collaborating with a voluntary organization for the benefit of the country as a whole.
This achievement will serve not just the Indo Trinidadian heritage and Community but also all of Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the Caribbean region.
It is my hope that your achievement will inspire greater state support to your Divali Nagar and as well increase pride in our cultural traditions.
So this year, I am happy to learn that this event is being seen on live television across the world with the participation of the ZEE world television network.
I join with you in welcoming Zee TV and their viewers as well as their famous Bollywood stars who are well known here in T & T.
How times have changed!
One hundred and seventy years ago a small group of Indians arrived in what was then the British colony of Trinidad with nothing more than a dream of a better life for themselves and their families.
They brought memories of an ancient culture and a belief in their religion; their most valuable material possession was the Ramayan, which provided comfort after their hard days working on the plantations.
The Ramayan provided solace and also helped educate future generations about the great religion and culture of Indian forefathers.
These pioneers refused to let anyone trample their culture and though they lived in a life of drudgery in a hostile western environment they did not let their language and religion die.
Religion and language are vital components of culture of any particular place or people and religion, language and culture are so interrelated that we cannot easily separated one from the other.
I want to also give thanks to the PANDITS who came as indentured labourers who kept our communities together, performed the vital rites and rituals and taught their offspring to continue the work of keeping their religion and language alive.
They did it as a great service … and they inspired many pioneers to follow. The Maha Sabha and Diwali Nagar are two outstanding institutions in our country that have worked tirelessly to preserve Indian culture in Trinidad and Tobago.
Ladies and gentlemen tonight I ask everyone who cares about our culture to make every effort to educate yourselves about it … and I challenge the NCIC and the MAHA SABHA to create even more opportunities to let our culture blossom and grow.
When we allow culture to suffocate and die we are collectively allowing our society to decay.
Each of us owes a debt to those brave pioneers who held on to their culture, their religion and their language.
And we can only repay that debt through the preservation of our culture.
In a diverse society such as ours we are continually bombarded by a mass culture that shapes our lives and the lives of our children.
In this cultural cacophony it is sometimes difficult to maintain focus on what is best.
That is why every parent has a duty to every child to ensure that you don’t let society and the mass culture educate your children.
When you abdicate that responsibility you do a disservice to your family and to society.
It takes an entire society to educate one child.
Let us stop making television and the internet our children’s babysitters and guardians.
Pay attention to what they are doing; get involved in their lives and educate them about their culture.
Ladies and gentlemen I am overjoyed to see the tens of thousands who come to this annual event but what is it you come for?
Is it for the entertainment? Is it the food and the socializing?
All those are important but you have to focus on the spirituality as well.
And I commend the organisers from early pioneers like Dr. Hans Hanoomansingh and Dr. Rampersad Parasram for insisting on a religious theme for every one of these events starting with the first Diwali Nagar in 1986 at Mid centre Mall.
This year the theme is DEVI MA … the all-powerful mother.
While this is a tribute to the Goddess of the Universe in all of her manifestations, it is a timely reminder for all of us of the need to also remember and revere our earthly mothers, who are manifestations of the divine in their own right.
In our tradition in the Vedas, when students leave the Ashram of their Guru, they are given four major injunctions to follow, and this even after they have gained all the secular knowledge required to earn a living.
Even to this day at the Benaras University the Chancellor gives this advice on the day of graduation.
They are instructed as follows with the instructions given in this order.
The mother is first acknowledged.
Regard the Mother as your God.
mäatå devo bhava |
Regard the Father as your God.
pitåa devo bhava |
Regard the Teacher as your God.
ächärya devo bhava |
Regard the Guest as your God.
atithi devo bhava |
And it is most fitting at this time in our country that we pay respect to the Divine Mother, who is SHAKTI … the all-embracing power that guides the universe.
Hinduism is unique in its recognition of women and while you might at times be confused with a Hindu pantheon our religion worships one God in the form of a trinity of BRAM-HA, VISHNU and SHIVA (or MAHESH) …
And the Gita tells us that God take many forms and intervenes in our communities whenever there is a necessity to rid our society of evil and negative influences.
It’s a promise of DIVINE INTERVENTION.
I am not a Sanskrit scholar so I won’t quote from the text… but I urge you to check the Gita, Chapter 4, which is also available in English – and you will find the promise of the Creator to all humankind:
“In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I come among you millennium after millennium.”
SHAKTI is the universal power of the female form of GOD.
SHAKTI is DEVI MA;
SHAKI is the Goddess DURGA
SHAKTI is the Goddess Lakshmi, whom we worship during Diwali.
SHAKTI, DEVI MA – RAMA, KRISHNA … all are the embodiment of the one GOD.
And I would go one step further.
Our lives are influenced by our actions and those actions are determined through a combination of our life experiences, our environment and our socializing.
The good and evil that we find in our society come from within; they come from which side we allow to take dominance.
Never allow yourself to become contaminated by hate, anger, jealousy and all the negatives forces that make up the dark side of your soul.
God resides in each of us as an immortal soul. And the soul – THE AATMA – guides us through the conflicts we face daily when we have to deal with temptation and negative influences. When we become weak and fall for temptation we weaken OUR SPIRITUAL SELF … and evil takes root.
So my sisters and brothers this Diwali when you perform LAKSMI PUJA and light your deeyas you are also performing puja for DEVI MA … and all the incarnations of God
And your prayer is for the DIVINE MOTHER to guide you to do all the things that are right… and to protect you from society’s negative influences.
“DEEP JO-TEE NAMAS TUTAY” …
We use the symbolism of light to ask the DIVINE MOTHER to help us to destroy enemies such as hate, anger and greed. And to make our societies rise in the light to destroy evil just a light burns away the darkness.
Today the children of those poor Indians who came into the unknown have lived their dream.
Those pioneers insisted that future generations must not suffer their fate and live lives of destitution.
Their lives, their commitment, their dedication to family created a strong foundation upon which we have build a society that each of us must continue to preserve.
We did not disappoint them.
We have become the teachers, the professionals, the priests, the farmers and the leaders. In short we have become the preservers of our society and our destiny. We have occupied the highest positions in our land.
People like President Noor Hassanali and PM Basdeo Panday sat in the highest seats of power as pioneers in their own right. And you afforded me the opportunity to join that special group when you elected me to serve as your first female Prime Minister.
But each of us – Mr. Hassanali, Mr. Panday and me … each of us – remained true to what our forefathers expected – adherence to our culture of service.
The Gita teaches us that service to our communities is a pathway to God … and service asking nothing in return is the way is the way to go.
My friends, that is why I chose service to you and will continue to serve you.
It is not because of any personal need.
Through God’s blessings I have no personal material needs. But I follow the tradition of my parents and their parents, in which is embedded a culture of SERVICE.
I have always been your servant and will always be so.
And that is why for decades I have been engaged in a struggle to improve the quality of life of all our citizens.
In this regard I am reminded of the popular Divali Bhajan Hey Anadhana ki Maharani in which Mother Lakshmi is described as the giver of food and to whom we pray that no one should go hungry, nor should there be darkness in any house.
Our worship of Mother lakshmi must move beyond just the rituals of worship to the rituals of compassion, love and care for those whose lives must be lifted up.
In my time as your Prime Minister and as a representative of the people I have tried as far as possible to close the gap between what religion proposes for a spiritual life and the manifestation of spirituality through my actions.
This is why if you examine the policies of the administration I led, you will notice that they were people centered and leaned on the side of compassion.
In this regard, some said we had too many social programs.
Today the threat to cut those programs loom large.
However I will not be a leader who will see babies and children undernourished and hungry, parents without a roof over their heads, the elderly being unable to take care of their material needs, the health of the people beyond their reach.
This is why I chose to build hospitals, to build schools, to make sure that every child under the age of six has a place in an international standard early childhood center.
This for me is religion in action.
I am aware of your disappointment of us having the general elections declared lost.
I am thankful to the over 340,000 who had faith in us and supported us.
I share the pains of your disappointment and apologize for whatever might have been our shortcomings.
But I also commit not to abandon the cause for which we stood together in 2010.
I will continue to defend your rights, I will continue to fight for equality of treatment, for cultural equity, for a crime free country, for better health services, for education for all, for a better quality of family life and opportunities .
I make this commitment in light of a deteriorating social situation marked by an increase in crime, a loss of jobs in the construction sector, an announcement by a company of cut backs in suppliers.
I do not for a moment mean to be abjectly political but what is the use of religion if it cannot inspire us to work for the betterment of society.
I am motivated by the concept of selfless service which is a cornestone of Hinduism, of seva (service) and daya (compassion) of prema (love) and stayam (truth) of dharma (ethics).
Sometimes in speaking that truth or in being ethical you pay a heavy price.
I am prepared to pay that price if in being truthful with you it advances the interests of all of the people of our land.
My life is an open book.
Look back at my stint as prime Minister and judge me by these principles.
I am not infallible but I served and governed to the best of my ability. If I did not meet all of your expectations I seek your understanding.
Allow me once more to go our scriptures since we are standing on holy ground as we prepare to celebrate the victory of good over evil.
Many of you are familiar with the Ramayan and the story of Lord Rama’s victory over the evil King Ravana, who had kidnapped Rama’s wife, SITA.
But there are other similar stories … some of you must have heard of the case of brother against brother in KISS-KINDER KAAND, which puts the brothers BALI and SUGREEV against one another. BALI has stolen his brother’s wife and banished SUGREEV from his kingdom.
RAMA intervened, destroyed BALI, who had become the embodiment of evil, and restored peace and prosperity to the Kingdom of KISS-KINDER, with Sugreev as a benevolent king.
In each case our scriptures provided lessons showing respect for women and the need to oppose even family when the motive is to rid society of negative and evil influences.
Perhaps one of the more profound messages from our scriptures comes from the GITA in the form of a discourse between LORD KRISHNA and ARJUNA on the battlefield of KURUK – SHET – RA as ARJUNA was getting ready to do battle with members of his family to restore righteousness to his kingdom.
His dilemma as he spoke with Lord Krishna was how to justify a war with family. He threw down his bow and was fearful of fighting because he would be fighting some of his kinsmen.
And Krishna through a lengthy discourse on the nature of humankind and society advised Arjuna that DUTY to society takes precedence over self… and therefore if it means opposing members of your family who have chosen the wrong path then righteousness and preservation of society demands that at those times you fight your kinfolk.
Every day we are faced with Arjuna’s dilemma.
It may not always be a conflict with family.
It is often a moral conflict among friends and people close to you. And sometimes it is a battle of the mind in trying to determine right from wrong.
But the scriptures teach us that the answer is always clear if you follow the principle that you must do what is right because it is the right thing to do.
It is the kind of morality you find spread over the entire body of Hindu scriptures.
In the MUKUN-DA UPAN-EESHAD you will find the Sanskrit words:
SAT-YAH-ME-WAH JAYA- TAY, which means TRUTH ALONE TRIUMPHS.
Sometimes we need to fight those we love not out of malice of spite… but because we must do it for the for the benefit; at times we have to confront EVEN those closest to us.
In our modern world we have witnessed great leaders who lived their lives solely for the better of a better, more equitable society – King, Mandela and the great father of the Indian nation, MAHATMA GANDHI.
When our forefathers came here to help build the British plantation economy they did not know that they were architects of a new society that is the Trinidad and Tobago of Tobago today.
What they knew clearly was that their culture and religion were of paramount importance if they were to translate dreams to reality.
I am proud to be a daughter of those pioneers. I am proud of what all of us have achieved … and today as the world looks on through the eyes of modern technology at what we have accomplished and what we do today I can say with joy in my heart that we did not squander the inheritance.
We learned well and we freed ourselves, took our rightful places in society and have given back so all of us can live in harmony, respecting our various cultural practices and living as one family celebrating our diversity and all that makes one a model among the nations of the world.
May the blessings of Mother Lakshmi endow us all with good health, prosperity, wisdom to choose that which is right and the means to sustain not only ourselves and our families but also to be able to support the poor the needy and the unfortunate in our midst.
Shubh Diwali.
THANK YOU. SHUK-REE-YA.
PHIR-MEE-LEE-GAA … WE SHALL MEET AGAIN.
Great and Powerfull speech, with a dose of knowleged or all