Source: www.nytimes.com
NEW YORK, USA, August 28, 2009: Some 50 singers, beautifully dressed in traditional Indian clothing, gathered Sunday morning in the senior center across the street from the Ganesha Temple in Flushing, Queens for one last rehearsal of a hymn. They would be performing on the busiest day of the temple calendar — the first day of the festival dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant-headed God. Ganesha is revered as the remover of obstacles, and his festival is considered an auspicious time to begin new endeavors, not least an experiment in adapting an old religion for a new land.
Most of the singers had grown up in India; none had ever heard of a Hindu choir before. Choirs are virtually unheard of in temples in India because worshipers tend not to cohere into anything resembling an attentive congregation; each devotee’s worship is individual. The numerous musical traditions that have sprung from Hinduism tend to favor solos and improvisation, in keeping with this individualistic and free-flowing dynamic.
Once in the temple, the choir launched into song in praise of the Deity, accompanied by keyboard, tabla and harmonium. “Om! Ganesha Sharanam!” Nine minutes later, the hymn came to a sudden climax with a final “Sharanam Ganesha!”
There swiftly followed another sound rarely heard in the temple: applause — but not for long. Dr. Mysorekar, the temple president, hushed it as soon as she could. “In this temple, the Lord has supremacy,” she explained. Then came a clamoring of bells, drums and a woodwind as a palanquin bearing another garlanded image of Ganesha was lifted high.
Devotees rushed to their feet, some heading for the palanquin’s procession, others for a corner of the temple for private prayer, others still for the exit. The brief experiment in unison was over for now. The familiar disorder was restored.
Raji Samant, a member of the choir who runs a bookkeeping business in the city, said she was drawn by the choir’s novelty. “For us as Indians to learn a whole new thing is wonderful.”
[Click on the source above to hear the choir’s rehearsal]