Houston Swayamsevak Sangh Holds Annual Sanghatan Divas

 

 

By Pravin Sharma

HOUSTON: The Houston chapter of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh USA held its annual Hindu Sangathan Divas congregation on Aug 24, at the Vadtal Dham Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple. This year’s event marked the 20th anniversary of Hindu Sangathan Divas in Houston and was attended by over 180 participants from about 65 organizations of the Greater Houston area. Hindu Sangathan Divas (Unity Day) as the name suggests, is a platform that provides an opportunity to Houston area Hindu organizations to come together, exchange ideas, share material and resources with the goal of synergizing the work for the larger community.

This year’s event theme was a continuation of previous year’s efforts for raising Hindu Dharma awareness among mainstream American society including outreach programs with civic officials, first responders, educational institutions and media influencers along with leveraging each other’s strength and resources for effective media promotions at every opportunity.

Amit Mishra, The Vice-President of HSS Houston chapter, welcomed all the organizations. He acknowledged the achievement of Houston’s vibrant Hindu community during past years which made a positive impact on the community. He also emphasized on the continuous efforts required by all organizations to raise Hindu dharma awareness.

Pradeep Sharma, the director of North Houston chapter kick started the event by emphasizing “why Hindu Sangathan Divas?” He pointed out the various challenges, misconceptions and misinformation being spread about the Hindu Dharma and its impact on our next generations and community at large. He also elaborated on why to have the coordinated activities to achieve the goals without disrupting autonomy of the organizations.

To complement the theme of the year, four key topics were presented by panelists followed by success stories, best practices from each organization in an open discussion.

First topic, Hindu Dharma Awareness to the mainstream community was presented by Arun Sharma and provided few insights on how things have changed by the efforts of all organization in last 20 years and the need for rigorous efforts from all to reach our goal for universal piece.

Second topic was focusing on Dharma awareness in academia and educational institutes, presented by Dr. Sonal Gupta. He highlighted the several cases of misinformation in educational institutes and books which needs to be addressed for correction. Darshana exhibition has proven to be very effective in passing the knowledge about Hindu culture and value system.

Third topic was led by Paramita Sarkar where she touched up on the importance of Civic engagement and outreach to elected officials. As being the center of knowledge, all organizations must encourage people to participate and vote during elections for the betterment of the community.

Adit Kapadia spoke on the fourth topic, the effective use of media to broadcast and communicate the work being done by each organization towards larger community in Houston. All participating organizations shared their experiences, success stories and aligned with the idea that the different Hindu organizations are committed to collaborate and work together with HSS on the capacity building in their respective organization and then take collective efforts in the outreach opportunities.

The youth and high schoolers shared their own experiences and discussed various challenges on misinterpretation of Hindu Dharma in the school, social and mainstream media. The groups expressed its views on the significance of proudly representing Hindu Dharma in the mainstream community.

A proactive approach with greater clarity is needed and this can be done by conducting seminars for university events, academicians and structure social media strategy, Hindu involvement in governance, inviting politicians to cultural events, participate actively in the political process. The meaningful geet “Dev Durlabh Veer Vrat le, Sanghatit ho Hindu sara”, set the perfect tone and aligned all minds before Keynote speech of Sree N. Sreenath, Founder President of the New Viveka Nand university (VAYU). He began his speech by appreciating the efforts of all Hindu organization and their enthusiastic participation and urged to adopt collective approach. He elaborated on the
challenges faced by the university and how they overcome it and established the institution to take forward the teachings of “Hindu Dharma”.

In the light of the theme of the event, he reminded everyone of the current challenges and understand the responsibility to pave the path for next generation. The conviction in our Dharma, literature and culture will lead the entire world on the universal unity.

The keynote speech was followed by vote of thanks by Vivek Singh, The director of HSS south chapter to conclude the event. He thanked each organization to participate and join hands with each other to take the baton forward. He thanked the organizing committee of the Vadtal Dham Swaminarayan Hindu temple for providing their facility along with other logistics for the event.