A Little Piece of India

In mid-November, I attended a Diwali celebration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Throughout the day, there were several events going on, such as a traditional Indian dance workshop, and a lantern-making workshop. But the day concluded with the Ramayana Dance Drama. For those who do not know, Diwali is the Annual Indian Festival of Lights, celebrated by those in the Hindu tradition. Being half Bengali, I was able to recognize and relate to a lot of the cultural dynamics of the event. However, I am not Hindu and I did not know very much about Diwali, so learning about the story of Diwali and its religious significance was an insightful and valuable experience.

The performance took place in the auditorium at the museum, a Broadway-sized proscenium theatre with mezzanine and all. A large statue of Vishnu was sitting at the corner of the stage. The audience consisted of many Indian families with small children and grandparents. Some families opted to wear traditional Indian clothing: kurtas, saris, and lehengas. Even some of the museum employees wore them as well. Although there were plenty of Indian families, the audience was very ethnically diverse. In fact, I sat next to a Jewish family. Many of the Indian families draped their coats and other personal belongings across the theatre seats, trying to save them for their family members. I giggled at this observation, because that is something my family would totally do. However, this caused a few predicaments because the museum employees did not permit people to save seats and a few audible arguments occurred. When the performance actually started, I was amazed by the traditional Indian dance and the storytelling. The Ramayana is a Sanskrit epic poem, which tells the story of Rama and Sita: their marriage, exile, and journey back to the kingdom. Overall, it depicts the victory of good over evil. The Indian families around me seemed to be enjoying the performance. They clapped and sang along, commenting throughout the entire story. A standing ovation concluded the two and half hour performance.

The main purpose of this event was to serve as a form of entertainment. For the museum, its main purpose was to encourage diverse communities to visit. However, like other immigrant groups in American history, the traditions and customs that are practiced must have a greater significance in the grand scheme of things. The Irish Catholics that came to the U.S. in the 1850s were discriminated against because Catholicism was suspect in America. However, when the U.S. acquired New Mexico, the Latino Catholicism did not sit well with the Irish Catholicism, because it differed greatly. And it certainly did not sit well with the Know-Nothings who believed in the power of Anglo-Saxon origins. This proves that religion extends beyond culture. Indians are not the only Hindus. But understanding Indian Hinduism is an attempt at understanding what it means to be Indian-American. I believe that for the Indians who attended this Diwali event, it served as a way of creating peoplehood and identity, just as the AME Church did for the African American community as James Baldwin alludes to. This event served as way for the Indian diaspora to share their culture and religious traditions with their children. It is a method of keeping their culture alive within them, a way of bringing a little piece of their homeland into America.

Galighticus

As an admirer of street art, I always have my eyes glued on the bricks and concrete that make up New York City. With the religious artifact project being assigned, I was excited to take what I find interesting and attempt to transform it into my assignment. After a few days looking up and down the facades of buildings for anything that could be deemed religious, a vibrantly spray-painted box truck surprisingly caught my eye. Parked on street across from Union Square Park, this truck was not just strikingly decorated, but strikingly decorated with Sri Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of spiritual and material wealth and an elephant spraying water from a golden vessel that is commonly associated with the Goddess. With this discovery I thought I had finally found my religious “artifact.”

A few days after finding the truck and snapping its picture, I uploaded it to my computer and took another look. The more I looked at the painting whilst enlarged, the more I saw. This truck was not just adorned with Sri Lakshmi, an elephant, and a beautiful background, but it also displayed a website; Galighticus.com, written in a cramped style directly positioned in the middle of the painted side of the truck. With this newfound information, I decided to go to the website to investigate and see just what “Galighticus” meant in relation to the Hindu components to the painting.

As I arrived at the website’s homepage I was completely taken a back, what was this website about, what was its aim? The main page of Galighticus.com has an array of visually engaging components such as outer space background, colorful text, and multiple pictures of religious figures. After getting acclimated with the visual effects, I was finally able to piece together what “Galighticus” was all about.

Galighticus.com is a website that promotes a spiritual consciousness that is lead by a man named Gano Grills. Gano Grills is a local New Yorker, who believes that every soul in this world has come to earth to take part in a certain role. Gano Grills believes that every soul plays an important role on earth, yet many do not know what their role is. With his spiritual guidance and the help of specific gods that created your soul, one can find their role and fulfill their potential here on Earth. Although there is much more to this belief system than what I briefly explained, I’d like to touch upon the fact that this faith that was created by Grills is non-denominational and exemplifies plurality of religion. The three gods that created Gano’s soul where Sri Lakshmi the Hindu Goddess of fortune, Shango the African God of storms, and Baldr the Norse god of love, peace, and forgiveness. The fact that this faith allows for a wide array of religious and mythical figures to work together to help individuals with their worldly journeys is something I find unique and actually characteristic of New York. It is unusual to think that religious figures from all different belief systems would in fact work together and cross religious boundaries in order to help individuals, but this faith created by Gano Grills believes in just that. New York is known for garnering inventive ideas and its acceptance of different beliefs and this spiritual awareness is both inventive and different in its own right. This religious outlook that has garnered a following in this city and around the world goes to show how different faiths and religious beliefs can overlap and in a sense work together. Everyone has the opportunity to garner this spiritual awareness which goes to show the embracing and inclusive qualities to this belief system which I think could only have budded and grown in a city like New York.

I recommend everyone take a look at Galighticus.com and see a different perspective on spiritual and religious beliefs. I also urge anyone who is ever near Union Square to check out the spray-painted truck that holds more significance than one may assume.

A Mural With A Message

 While making my way down Bleecker street on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I came across this exquisite mural. Located on the walls of the under-constructed Bayard Condict Building, an office building known for its lavish and radical architecture, rests this unknown and powerful work of art. It is difficult not to notice the bright and lively colors that pop from this mural when walking through the dark and dreary sidewalk burdened with construction. Although its location isn't ideal, I was still drawn to the powerful illustrative composition, as well as it’s main didactic, pacifistic message.

The foreground of the mural displays four people of different gender and race, joining hands with one another. Their mouths are agape, almost as if they are chanting a message in harmonious unison. The expression on their faces, as well as the people who stand together in the background, vary, but all don a passionate look. In addition, the foreground also displays numerous guns and other violent weapons, which are discarded and piled up in front of the four main figures. Furthermore, in the middle ground of the mural a tree with flowers growing off its branches is shown. In between these delicate branches a bright banner with an excerpt of writing is shown. The excerpt reads: “There is no way to peace; peace is the way”- A.J Muste”. Ultimately, the socially-charged quote from pacifist-movement member A.J Muste, the modern day references to gun-violence, and the powerful use of compositional design helps this mural propagate a message of peaceful unity of all peoples regardless of any physical, racial or even religious aspect they may possess. In addition, the closeness and the overlapping of the bodies presented within the picture can be perceived as a stylistic symbol to show how people should join together and love one another, rather than express feelings of contempt or hate towards one another. 

This message for peace is something very powerful and considering the events taking place now a days, is probably needed. This mural can be recognized as a symbol to end gun-violence and can be perceived as a message for all peoples to find harmony with one another. This mural can be perceived through a religious lens since it somewhat mirrors the teachings found within Joshua Liebman’s book. Throughout his book, Liebman lays out a quick fix on how all people can find their own inner spiritual and religious peace. In order to find this inner peace, Liebman prescribes that America and its people who are not beholden to a monarchial system of reliance, should embrace the self-reliance and pluralism of their country while also understanding that God is not a tyrannical, omnipotent punisher in the sky. Rather, God is a force of love which people should coexist with in an harmonious balance. Like Liebman’s self-help book, the mural echoes and advocates a similar harmonious-oriented solution for change. This solution that the mural promotes is one filled with a pluralistic and multiculturalist environment that includes a symbiotic relational coexistence of people, as well as a strong passionate bond, like the relationship advocates with God. Rather here, the religion is not one with just having a close relationship to God, but also one possessing a powerful and congenial connection with all those who surround you.