Sat Ma­haraj

Fit­ting­ly and ap­pro­pri­ate­ly, the last in­stal­ment in this five-part se­ries falls on May 30, ex­act­ly 168 years since our an­ces­tors ar­rived from In­dia to make Trinidad and To­ba­go their home.In the in­ter­ven­ing years, In­di­ans have both main­tained their num­bers as a pro­por­tion of the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion, while strength­en­ing and con­sol­i­dat­ing their pres­ence in every facet of na­tion­al life.In­di­ans can be found in every as­pect of na­tion­al life–re­li­gion, pol­i­tics, busi­ness, so­cial, ed­u­ca­tion, sport, etc.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, they con­tin­ued to mi­grate to T&T over this pe­ri­od, not on­ly from var­i­ous parts of In­dia but al­so from var­i­ous oth­er coun­tries. Busi­ness and trade be­tween In­dia and T&T is now at an all-time high.In­di­ans from T&T have al­so mi­grat­ed to every con­ti­nent in the world to be­gin new lives in dif­fer­ent en­vi­ron­ments. Hin­dus every­where have es­tab­lished hun­dreds of tem­ples across the world to en­sure that wher­ev­er they live, they have a place of wor­ship and a so­cial­i­sa­tion process to sat­is­fy their core needs.

The bond­ing and the sense of fam­i­ly are per­va­sive in every Hin­du.Ad­di­tion­al­ly, in the ever-ex­pand­ing tech­no­log­i­cal world, it is eas­i­er for Hin­dus to main­tain con­stant com­mu­ni­ca­tion with friends and fam­i­lies every­where.The bond that binds Hin­dus every­where is dai­ly man­i­fest­ed by the callers and con­tri­bu­tions to our Ra­dio Jaagri­ti, the flag­ship of the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, soon to be ex­pand­ed to TV Jaagri­ti.

It is im­pos­si­ble to sep­a­rate the Sanatan Dhar­ma (Hin­duism) from its time­less sup­port–the Holy Ra­mayan. The sup­port for our an­ces­tors and their abil­i­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence tri­umph over the Kaala Paani (black wa­ters) lay in the Ra­mayan which pro­vid­ed sup­port through all ad­ver­si­ties ex­pe­ri­enced dur­ing their voy­age to Trinidad.Like Lord Ra­ma in the Ra­mayan, they left their abode in In­dia to ven­ture for­ward. Mov­ing away from one's roots can be trau­mat­ic.

Like Lord Ram, they came to this part of the world with the high­est ideals of life held in their hearts.The Ra­mayan it­self speaks elo­quent­ly of the strug­gles of the Lord and the con­fi­dence he dis­played in sur­mount­ing all of life's dif­fi­cul­ties and chal­lenges. This knowl­edge is in­bred, and all the fol­low­ers of Sanatan Dhar­ma (Hin­duism) with a vi­sion of life, have a unique per­spec­tive of con­fronting chal­lenges that life of­fer.

"Aage Barho" is a time­less in­junc­tion and ad­vice. It em­pha­sis­es that life is a con­stant move­ment for­ward and one must for­ev­er seek im­prove­ment. Over the last 168 years, Hin­dus have al­ways sought guid­ance from the Ra­mayan to sus­tain them­selves through all dif­fi­cul­ties. March­ing for­ward to­wards growth and de­vel­op­ment par­al­lels Lord Ra­ma in Ra­mayan.

Hin­dus from T&T have now be­come glob­al trav­ellers–liv­ing and work­ing in nu­mer­ous coun­tries while recog­nis­ing and ac­knowl­edg­ing T&T as their Jan­ma Bhoo­mi (land of birth). This is akin to Lord Ra­ma–re­gard­less of where he went, Ay­o­d­hya was his home.As chil­dren of in­den­tured labour­ers, spir­i­tu­al In­dia will al­ways be spe­cial be­cause the blood of the rishis flow in our veins.

The in­creas­ing per­for­mance of pu­jas, yagyas, jaap, hawan, bha­jans and oth­er re­li­gious prac­tices, re­flect the rich­est her­itage known to man and em­bod­ies the high­est prin­ci­ples.Lord Ram demon­strat­ed the at­trac­tions and tem­pera­ment that in­cul­cate an in­valu­able les­son to us. As the in­car­na­tion of the Supreme, he taught per­fec­tion but nev­er hes­i­tat­ed to en­gage in war­fare with evil do­ers.

While we main­tain calm and seren­i­ty, it is equal­ly ac­cept­able that we fight for our rights and re­sist the ef­forts of those who wish to see our de­cline, de­struc­tion and erad­i­ca­tion.When threat­ened, we must be con­scious of our du­ty and en­sure that no re­li­gious, so­cial, eco­nom­ic, po­lit­i­cal or oth­er op­pres­sion goes un­chal­lenged.The ef­forts of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha in stout­ly re­sist­ing, ver­bal­ly and legal­ly, every at­tempt to dis­cred­it the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty is con­tin­u­ing.

The Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty is an en­vi­able tar­get for those who have not made the req­ui­site ef­forts to im­prove them­selves and their com­mu­ni­ties, and now seek to prey in var­i­ous ways on our com­mu­ni­ty.Lord Ra­ma's open con­fronta­tion with evil does and his in­struc­tion to us on how to pro­ceed in all sit­u­a­tions, is doc­u­ment­ed in our re­li­gious texts. Timid­i­ty in the face of op­pres­sion is not a virtue. Lord Ram as­so­ci­at­ed with the holy and de­stroyed the un­holy.

We, too, must en­sure all ef­forts are made to as­sist and sup­port the vir­tu­ous and no­ble, while re­fus­ing to re­treat from those who wish to do evil.Tul­si­das, au­thor of Ra­mayan, re­minds us: "Satya Moola sabe Sukrit Suhaaye, Ve­da Pu­raana Sa­ba Mu­ru Gaaye."Truth is the root of all hap­pi­ness says the Vedas and Pu­raanas. The Ra­mayan's in­com­pa­ra­ble lit­er­al and es­o­teric mes­sages and mean­ings con­vey this uni­ver­sal wis­dom in the con­duct and per­for­mance of our al­lot­ted du­ties.

We wish to ac­knowl­edge the in­valu­able in­put of the Pan­dits' Parishad (coun­cil of pan­dits) and its pres­i­dent Pan­dit Bhadase See­ta­hal Ma­haraj, for re­search­ing and analysing the im­por­tant role the Ra­mayan of Tul­si­das has among Hin­dus.This re­li­gious text sup­port­ed and sus­tained our an­ces­tors through­out their in­den­ture­ship and even to­day.