America is truly massive: landing in Newark, one witnesses from the air this enormous, huge movement on multiple highways, with thousands of cars constantly on the move, boats with endless containers on sea channels, and at the airport, hundreds of planes parked, taxying, landing or taking off. Whatever feelings one may have about the United States, this vibrant urgency shows that it’s still the nation to reckon with.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the famous guru who founded the Art of Living and modernised as well as repackaged pranayama and meditation, made no mistake about it. His fourth World Culture Festival, after Bengaluru, twice, and Berlin, was in the capital of the United States — Washington DC. It was organised in the beautiful setting of the Washington DC National Mall, between the White House and the Washington Monument Obelisk.
Washington is, without doubt, with Boston, the most European city in the US, with its parks, cafés, terraces and wide shaded avenues — contrary to cities like Dallas, Atlanta, or even Los Angeles, which have no centres to speak of and where you have to drive ten miles to buy a bottle of milk. This is why Sri Sri chose DC, which apparently wasn’t the only city to place a bid to welcome the festival. Los Angeles, where the Art of Living Foundation has a huge centre and Albuquerque had also been interested in hosting the World Culture Festival. It is in great part thanks to the support of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who announced the festival earlier in a press release, explaining that “Guru Shankar’s message of diversity aligns with the city’s values”.
The first evening, nearly 500,000 people milled around. From the huge stage in front to the lawns far away, one could see a sea of humanity, moving, clapping, dancing. We were told that a 1,000-member gospel choir would sing, and about 2,800 dancers from more than 35 countries would perform. It was a grand spectacle, though at times a bit long for those who had witnessed earlier events, but as Sri Sri often says: “Music and meditation go together, because music unites people, and it is the juice of life.” And at the end of the first day, we were therefore all treated to a 20-minute meditation by the Master.
On the second morning, Gurudev, as he is fondly called, led a morning meditation at 8 am because as he has often repeated: “Meditation and yoga calm you down — it uplifts your spirit and gives you energy.” He adds: “It’s good for our body and physique, but also our mental fitness.” In the evening, again at least 30,000 people were milling around in the alleys, where more than 50 food trucks from DC, Maryland, and Virginia companies such as Koshary Corne, Arepa Zone, and Taste of Montreal served international dishes all through the three-day festival. There were so many artists from all over the world. Sri Sri wanted to give them a platform because he felt they were not in good shape. Their depression rate was 17 times more than normal people who are not artists. So, this is a very big crisis that we can see in our society, that artists are more depressed than the others.
On the stage next to him, one could see Jain monks, Hindu swamis, Christian priests, etc. We thus were served with an interfaith discourse from all of them, including a Parsi priest. To quote Sri Sri: “Post-Covid, I felt that this is so much needed, especially when there is so much polarisation that’s happening, fear, uncertainty and violence in society that can only be countered by celebration and bringing people together.” And he elsewhere said: “Let’s get everyone to sing OM all over the world and dance and dine together.” Which we did, all together, in one voice.
One did not see on the stage many acting Congressmen — both Democrats and Republicans — nor Vice President Kamala Harris, who has Indian roots, which is a pity. But to my mind, without doubt, Sri Sri’s coup de maître, a masterstroke, would have reached successfully to the Black American community.
On the third day, there was a long Hip-Hop show that retraced the history of this pioneering rap dance. The dancing and rhythm was so good that everybody was swaying to the tunes. Later, the hip-hoppers came to the stage for a photo opportunity with Sri Sri. No doubt they were conquered by his charm and smile. I believe more and more that the future belongs to these people, who were enslaved and today are slowly emerging as a political and economic force to reckon with. And if you see advertisements on television, you will notice that market studies have understood that phenomenon.
It is said that more than 1 million people from 180 countries attended the World Culture Festival at the National Mall in Washington DC for three days of wild celebration of unity in diversity. Nearly 17,000 artists, entertainers and speakers spoke from the largest stage ever built in Washington. According to inside sources, the festival generated nearly $30 million in revenue for Washington city.
Let us hope that because of initiatives like the World Culture Festival, one will see close relations — both economic and geopolitical — between these two great democracies that are India and the United States. They would both benefit immensely from it: America with Indian ancient dharmic knowledge, and India with US technology and know-how.
The author is a French journalist and author of ‘A History of India as It Happened’ (Garudabooks.com). He is also building a museum of true Indian history in Pune. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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