Full to the brim in the hindu temple. The conference ‘Take me from darkness to light’ by Juan Carlos Ramchandani (Pandit Krishna Kripa Dasa) was one of the central acts of the Diwali 2022 in Ceuta and has not disappointed.
The Hindu priest, a personality from the autonomous city, has brought together audiences of all ages and of different beliefs in a spirituality master class and, above all, wisdom about a very ancient religion like Hinduism.
Ramchandani has spoken pedagogically about the meaning and the origins of diwalithe festival of lights (literally “row of lights” according to Sanskrit) that ends this Wednesday 26.
Teachings with thousands of years to apply in everyday life
“The title of the conference is based on a verse from the Vedic scriptures that means that the person goes from the darkness that is ignorance to the light that is knowledge”, explained Pandit Krishna Kripa Dasa.
“What we want is to share knowledge about a philosophy and spirituality as old as Hinduism and to see how these teachings that are thousands of years old can be applied in people’s daily lives”, explained the speaker who offered the interested parties a “free trip” to mystical India.
Of course, asking the attendees to comply with the basic rules of behavior in silence and in a meditative state. That is to say, with much respect above all and mobiles without sound.
“I bring a spiritual piece of India to the heart of Ceuta”, said Ramchandani, who has insisted on doing “pedagogy” to differentiate the message of Hinduism from what it is not.
His return to the Hindu Temple after 14 years, the same years of exile of Lord Rama
All this, on such a special date as Diwali, “the religious festival celebrated by all Hindus because in Hinduism there are different philosophical schools that do not celebrate all of them and this is the most important and today has a global character” , has indicated the Hindu priest. Something like that at Christmas Christian or the Jewish Hanukkah.
Interestingly, the festival of lights symbolizes the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya after having served fourteen years of exile. Coincidence or not, Ramchandani had not set foot in the Hindu Temple of Ceuta for fourteen years until this Diwali.
“It is gratifying to share this ancestral wisdom with all the people of Ceuta, regardless of their religion”, said the protagonist of the afternoon, who has lived six years in India and one in the United States and who, although he develops a large part of his activity in the peninsula As an eminence of Hinduism in Spain, he returns quite frequently to the land where he was born and grew up.
The three Diwali messages
Regarding Diwali, which the local Hindu community has eagerly embraced in 2022, Pandit Krishna Kripa Dasa has pointed out that it is a holiday whose message has three main aspects: “It has a family message to take advantage of to meet and eat together; a social aspect of interacting with people; and above all a spiritual one of internalization, because apart from the ritual and brand new clothes it is very important to internalize what it means that good overcomes evil”.
Apart from his own activity on Hinduism and his facet as a writer, researcher and disseminator, Ramchandani is one of the authorized voices in Spain on interreligious dialogue. In this sense, he has called for the Hindu Temple of Ceuta to be a “space for coexistence between different religions and to see the common points within the beliefs of each person”.
According to this Hindu priest, his religion is seen in Spain as the “most exotic or sometimes the most unknown, since the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) have roots in common while with the Hindu there is a great geographical distance and an ignorance because there has been a failure in the transmission”.
Erroneous and common versions such as saying that Diwali is the Hindu New Year. “If for four generations something is said that is not, it remains recorded”, he explained to conclude that it is the duty of people who “we were born in the second or third generation to transmit religion with pedagogy, modern language and translate it from the sacred word (Sanskrit) into Spanish”.
A special aarti to close
As he did last October 18, when he officiated the ‘aarti’ for the start of Diwali before the political, social and civil authorities of Ceuta, Ramchandani has finished his conference in the Hindu Temple guiding the attendees in this ceremony that symbolizes the five elements (air, water, fire, earth and space).
A special moment in which gifts were given and Hindu spirituality was experienced at the forefront. Undoubtedly, a brilliant afternoon-evening for those who are part of the Hindu community or for people who, from other beliefs and sensitivities, want to get closer to this religion and this culture so established in Ceuta.
The irruption of a British prime minister of Hindu religion
Asked about the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Shunak, the Hindu priest from Ceuta pointed out that it is very interesting that it is a person of Indian origin and Hindu religion, although born in Great Britain, who assumes this position because “he helps differentiate what it is to be Indian from Hindu, since a Hindu person can be of any nationality or ethnicity”.
“It has positive things for the world in general and for the communities that live outside of India,” remarked Ramchandani, who also pointed out that the now British ‘premier’ has already sworn in as a deputy on the Bhagavad Gita, the sacred book of Hinduism written in Sanskrit.