Paras Ramoutar
TRINIDAD, September 12, 2004: Ram Leela reflects the human condition in man’s journey to divinity, according to prominent Trinidad Hindu thinker, Ravji. The Indian-trained thinker and Hindu activist noted that Ram Leela is a ritual which attempts to stitch together the metaphor of our journey from animality to humanity and then on to divinity. “Ram Leela is an on-going yatra (pilgrimage) of the peoples of the Caribbean to experience, vision and shape ourselves,” he said. Ravji was giving the Eighth Lecture series on Indian Thought and Philosophy organized by the Indian High Commission. Shri Virendra Gupta hailed the lecture as, “another initiative aimed at educating the world of India’s rich cultural and religious and spiritual heritage.” Raviji said that Ram Leela, a theatrical experience, focuses on the Life and Times of Lord Rama on earth, but noted that it continues to be diluted from its rich spirituality. “Indian languages have encouraged, within the rather large cluster of classic variations of words and even scripts, new meanings. Such newly shaped words continue their original meanings,” Raviji noted. “Ram Leela in Trinidad and Tobago never remained disconnected from space and time.” He made reference to Nobel Laureate Derrick Walcott’s passage in one his books of Ram Leela in Felicity, Chaguanas. “We must resolve to make Ram Leela a priority project in every community spreading across the country,” Raviji said.