Dear Editor,
I realize I am stepping into murky waters by addressing assumptions and charges of racism made against Swami Aksharananda. But even if the report made by a letter writer in the Stabroek News of June 2, 2015 is not validated, I need to say a few things. I will be brief, but please know that I know more than that of which I now speak. Know that I know what racism smells, feels, and looks like. And know that I well know goodness and badness.
While Ronald Waddell was being demonized and attacked as racist, and I was being accused of co-habiting with a racist, Swami, whom I have known for nearly 40 years in different contexts, continued to demonstrate in a range of ways, deep love and respect for me, and for the partner I had chosen at a mature stage of my personal and political life.
Ronald and I were involved in early suicide awareness work at the ashram in Cove & John on the East Coast of Demerara and participated in religious ceremonies on the West Coast of Demerara where Swami presided. And in the midst of much racial ugliness in this unholy mess that has passed for a country, Swami came to our home one Raksha Bandhan. This is the Hindu festival that celebrates brother/sister relationships, including that between men and women who are not biologically related. He came to tie rakhi thread on Ronald and I. It was his way of showing solidarity and seeking protection for us from the Most High. One version of the rakhi prayer says in part, “May the one who creates, preserves, and dissolves life, protect thee.”
Swami Aksharananda was in India at the time of Ronald’s assassination on January 30, 2006. On his way back to Guyana, he passed through New York, heard versions of who, what and why from members of Guyanese communities there, engaged his sister in helping him to choose an orange shalwar which he brought for me when he came to visit as soon as he returned home. We spoke. He understood. He consoled me.
Since then, we continued to keep in touch on spiritual and educational matters, and more recently on the traumatizing issue of suicide which caused great suffering to the children, teachers, and people in the communities where he lives and works.
I have followed the development of his school at Cornelia Ida, Saraswati Vidya Niketan, and strongly recommend that headteachers and the Ministry of Education pay close attention to what is responsible for its academic success. It is the closest thing we have as a model school in Guyana.
Finally, I have found the ‘namaste’ greeting some members of the Hindu faith use, very useful. I use it myself, sometimes substituting the word ‘blessings.’ Bringing my hands together in prayer position and saying ‘namaste’ means, “I bow to the divine in you” and reminds us all, especially Christians who espouse that we are all children of God, made in the image of the Almighty, that there is a spark of divinity in all human beings. We make errors, but to err, we know, is human. Whatever issues we have with one another, being human means we need always to consciously recognize ourselves in other human beings.
On a lighter, not unrelated note: Thanks to all – nurses, doctors, friends, family – who cared for me after I was assaulted on April 1st this year. (Note: This includes Swamiji who showed up at the hospital.) Even though I am now lockless and virtually bald following surgery, I am comforted to know, as the song says, “You don’t have to be dread to be rasta!” One love! Jah Rastafari!
Yours faithfully,
Bonita Harris