Everyone is Divine: India Home partners with the Rubin Museum to celebrate Vaisakhi

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Creative aging…

India Home believes in providing creative aging programs that offer opportunities for our seniors to actively express themselves creatively, socialize with their peers while learning new skills,  and engage in cultural performances.

…and a partnership with the Rubin Museum.

 

As part of this creative aging effort we have forged a partnership with the prestigious Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in Manhattan. In our role as Community Partner, we’ve presented programs related to Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, and Mahavir Jayanthi.

This is our third event

On April 15, 2017, we presented our third program at the Museum: a celebration of the Sikh festival, Vaisakhi, traditionally a rite that marks the end of the harvest season in India. We hosted the event along  the Sikh Cultural Center, one of the biggest Gurudwaras, or Sikh place of worship, in New York City.

This is how our program was described on the Rubin Museum’s blog.

Sikhs believe that every individual is filled with divine potential. At a time when racial and religious tension is high, New York Sikhs continue to celebrate their faith and values of equality, even when occasionally faced with senseless discrimination. At the Museum, Sikh and non-Sikh community members came together to celebrate Sikh culture and participate in the OM Lab.

Twenty seniors from India Home attended and some of them enjoyed the opportunity to make use of the OM lab’s recording booth and “offer their OMs and join thousands of others in the chant that will be featured in the forthcoming exhibition.”

Our elders enthusiastically participated  in a new experience, when Sharan Bir Kaur, a Kundalini yoga expert, led them and the rest of the audience in a short chanting meditation using the mantra “Wahe Guru” which is the Gurumantra or seed mantra in Sikhism.

 

 

 

Jagir Singh Bains, an elder from the Sikh Cultural Center, further enlightened the audience with  a short presentation about the basic tenets of Sikhism and the meaning behind the symbols of the faith, like the turban, the beard, and the kada (the steel bangle).

The night ended on a happy note with everyone dancing the bhangra! To read more click this link to go to the Rubin Muesum’s blog