Written by Jamie Berk: May 5, 2003
My interest in the youth membership of the America Sevashram Sangha was sparked during my first visit to Jamaica, Queens. This idea of “the youth” came up frequently in informal conversation with various members of the ashram[1] that I spoke with and I observed that much of the responsibilities in the Sunday service were carried out by young men and women that fell somewhere between the age bracket of 14 to 25. The more conversations I had with members of this predominantly Guyanese Hindu community in Jamaica, Queens, the more I began to question the conception of the youth at the ashram, as it was made quite clear that it was a primary focus. The question arose: Why, and in whose minds, was this emphasis on youth central and how is this “focus on the youth” incorporated in the self-understanding of the ashram.[2] The following discussion of the Guyanese Hindu youth of the community is based on my fieldnotes from several visits to the American Sevashram Sangha, the recorded conversations that took place there, and the literature that was generously made available to me.
After frequent visits and several conversations the question remained: Was the emphasis on the youth specific to the America Sevashram Sangha? If so, why? I quickly began to realize in discussions with members of the community that when they spoke of ‘youth’ there was a tendency to vacillate between an overarching concept of the Youth, with a capital Y, and the youth of this community in New York. After some time it became apparent that the local youth and global Youth were not simply two sides of the same coin. Instead, the concept of Youth in the larger mission of the organization and the focus on Guyanese youth in the community in Queens depend on each other in a unique way. The global and local projects concerning the youth perpetually and systematically reinforce each other. The importance of a global responsibility to the generalized Youth is often used to augment the issues that have come to circumscribe the youth here in Queens.
The following is a discussion of the relationship between global and local conceptualizations of youth in the ashram and its effects on the younger members of the America Sevashram Sangha in terms of identity formation. Although both the younger and older members of the community agree that the America Sevashram Sangha places great emphasis on “youth”, there seems to be a generational divide in the interpretation of how the ashram does so and the benefits to be gained. This paper will address the larger responsibility of America Sevashram Sangha to “The Youth” and the role that the ashram plays in minds of the Indo-Caribbean Hindu youth in Queens. The arguments here are based on a compilation of several sources, but were in no way laid out as such by any one member of the community at the America Sevashram Sangha.
The America Sevashram Sangha: Impressions and Background
Let me begin with a brief description of my first visit to the American Sevashram Sangha. When I walked through the entryway of the ashram I was greeted politely by a table of four teenagers one of whom was our “contact”, Shri Ram, a seventeen -year -old young man who resides at the ashram with several other members of the monastic order. His role at the ashram is not defined by any specific title but it became abundantly clear that Shri Ram had some authority amongst his peers that had come to take part in the Sunday service. Shri Ram excused himself several times during our brief tour of the building to tend to what appeared to be his regular Sunday maintenance responsibilities before the service was to begin.
When the service or satsang began, I observed that the younger men and women of the community facilitated all of the rituals. A few people approached me after the service ended to extend their welcome and to inquire about my interest in the ashram. Conversations most often began with explanations of Hinduism, the Gods and Goddesses in the Hindu pantheon, and some discussions on the rituals that took place in the service. When I made it clear that my curiosity and desire to understand what went on at their ashram were not focused directly on learning about the religion but about the members of the ashram itself, I was told immediately that the ashram’s “focus is on the youth,” a comment that was supplemented by a list of youth programs executed by the America Sevashram Sangha in the past few years. After some time I was led into the adjoining room where I shared a meal with Shri Ram, his friends, and a young women named Valini. Our visit was cut short by a Youth Group meeting in preparation for the birthday of the ashram’s guru Swami Pranavananda, which was to take place the following Sunday. I recount this visit in detail only to emphasize this concept of the “youth” in the ashram as something extremely present in both the minds and everyday procedures of the America Sevashram Sangha.
The members of this ashram at 153-1490 Avenue Jamaica, Queens are all Indo-Caribbean and the largest demographic is from Guyana.[3] The congregation[4] is Hindu with a main focus of worship on Swami Pranavananda (1896-1941), to whom the organization traces its origins. The ashram is the home to a number of brahmacharis and young men, like Shri Ram, who live by the guidelines of monastic life. As we will see, the monastic dimension of the organization plays a part in the conceptualization of youth “outreach” on both global and local levels. The America Sevashram Sangha is one of the three Western branches of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha. The headquarters of the organization are in India, creating a global/local dynamic that comes to the fore in issues concerning the youth in Queens. The branches in Trinidad, Guyana, and New York are under the spiritual leadership of Swami Vidyananda. His pupils refer to him as Swamiji, an affectionate and respectful title. Swamiji spends a part of the calendar year in all three locations. His relationship to the global and local youth is of interest here and will be discussed later in this paper.
Think Global, Act Local: The Conceptualization of Youth Outreach
It seems logical, if not obvious, that a community in diaspora would focus their attention on the youth. When a community relocates to another country, youth can embody the threat of cultural loss during the process of assimilating. The responsibilities of preserving the past, sustaining the present, and continuing the practices, rituals and cultural traditions are placed upon the younger generations. This influences activities both inside and outside of the home. The weight of this responsibility ultimately may become internalized, leaving the youth with a far more personal project of “hybrid” identity formation with cultural preservation as only the by-product. [5] In America, the nature of such pressure is two-fold: the parents or older members of the community desire to protect their children from an urban, potentially dangerous environment in which they now live, and these private fears extend to the worrisome infiltration of Westernization as a larger threat of cultural or religious dilution.[6] The focus on the youth in diaspora must contend with managing, at the micro and macro levels, the consequences of both global and local repercussions. The youth become the repositories for this interrelationship between the larger abstract ideal of cultural preservation and the local needs of a community in diaspora.
As I talked with members of the America Sevashram Sangha there was a large emphasis on the prevention of declining “values” [7] which highlighted the fears of American, mostly urban, influence while echoing the greater responsibility of the organization to “inculcate”[8] a particular way of life. The more I spoke with individual participants, the more I became confused as to what exactly was meant by “the youth” in the ashram. Was this organization, headquartered in India, targeting this group in order to create the next generation of leaders for the world? Or was the idea of “youth outreach” specific to the America Sevashram Sangha to help the young people in their new American urban location? My questions were answered by what seemed to be a kind of fluidity between both local and global conceptualizations of youth outreach in the statements made by the leaders and older members of the community. These informants expressed views that presented the global Youth and the ashram’s youth not it terms of a bi-focal, or multi-leveled project. Rather, a global and local youth foci were comfortably inter-twined, one offering different points of access to the other.
The conversations that took place both at the America Sevashram Sangha and in other locales,[9] ranged in depth and in length. After several visits I began to record our conversations. I have transcribed my interviews and several members are quoted here at length. I have decided to keep these quotes relatively full in order to represent accurately the train of thought in conversations with informants. I have punctuated with commas and periods when there were noticeable pauses, but I have not adjusted or corrected grammar. I have used phonetic spelling when necessary. My purpose is to provide as direct access as possible into the sentiments and experiences that were expressed.
The tendency to vacillate between a generalized Youth and the local youth of the ashram is reflected in the following introductory comments made to me by Brahmachari Vidur. Brahmachari Vidur joined the organization at 21 and has lived as a brahmachari for nine years. He has been in New York for nine months, sent by the organization in Guyana to help with the “program” of the America Sevashram Sangha. He explains,
Well our main theme, our main focus, is on the youth because we find the youth are the leaders of tomorrow. One of our themes in our Sangha… we have to start with our youth because as I mentioned the youth are the foundation and if you have a proper- especially to be in society you need have to have a proper foundation- moral value is very low, all depends, we find if they are doing very little at home when they come to mandir, when they come to the congregation they will have a lot to read. That’s why we keep our focus on the youth… [My Emphasis]
He continued his comments with more of an emphasis on the youth at the ashram and the possible difficulties that they may face in American society,
Involving them in the ceremony, or whatever here… they can have a sense of responsibility and if they can channel their energy into that part, into that way, generally they can take on the responsibility to become a better leader, inculcate them more values, more responsibility for leadership, and other good qualities.
Actually, in society, especially in American society, you find the youth, especially from Guyana and the West Indies– you find they influenced by the external, the society here, a way of life they are not accustomed to. They influenced, maybe they waver a little, so to keep that intact, we always keep focus on them.[10]
Of interest here is the ambiguous notion of “focus”. It seems that throughout Brahmachari Vidur’s explanation the idea of “focus” functions on the one hand as a “theme,” in the sense that it is an emphasis of the organization, and also as a protective action, in the sense of “keeping the youth focused” and “keeping focus on them”. In other words, the ashram focuses on the youth but also urges the youth to keep focused. There is also no distinction made between focusing on the youth as the foundation (for continuance?) and on the foundation they need to “be in society”. How can the youth both be the foundation and need a foundation? This ambiguity resonates with the global/local conceptualization of youth in diaspora where their personal vulnerability is magnified to represent a greater cultural vulnerability in the face of deterioration or devolution. Thus, the youth at the ashram come to represent the difficulties and worries of the community as a whole. By bracketing this part of their community as the one deserving its primary “focus”, the America Sevashram Sangha can address the situation of the entire congregation through this visible entity of “youth.”
The organization’s larger global responsibilities to the Youth are also expressed in the values it espouses. These values were influenced, if not directly taken, from the vows of a brahmachari: “we stress a life of celibacy and continence.”[11] Vijram Raj Kumar, a teacher by profession and an active leader in the ashram, espoused the organizational objective for the youth. He stated:
Our objective for the youth is to prepare them to be well-rounded personalities so they can fit outside in society. How do we do that? We feel that any person that bends his knees and bows his head to the Lord is on the path to proper education. This is a house of worship and that is one of the first things we started when we started. Self-respect self-restraint, you know, along that line the way the brahmacharia have taught us.[12]
This idea of defining one’s social place by religion abounds in diaspora studies.[13] What is curious here is the unique blend of householder and monastic life. Living like a brahmachari is not an act of separation but of social incorporation. Again we see a combination of idealized and localized visions for the youth. The tenets held central to the organization as a religious institution are universalized while simultaneously molded to fit what appear to be secular needs. Imbued with religiosity, these values are assumed to be universally efficacious and perhaps they are. My point here is that a universal response ultimately creates a homogenized or essentialized concept of Youth.
It is important to note that both Brahmachari Vidur and Vijram Raj Kumar were speaking to me as members of a collective “we” and clearly understood themselves as representatives of the America Sevashram Sangha. When I questioned some members of the community on the ashram’s involvement with their youth, I was quickly directed to Brahmachari Vidur and Vijram Raj Kumar for “official” answers. It became clear to me that both of these men would represent the America Sevashram Sangha with some authority in the topics that I wished to pursue. I did not get the sense in the conversations with either of these men that these were personal interpretations of the youth focus at the ashram, but rather statements on behalf of the organization. As we will see, interpretations of the youth focus of the ashram are interpreted differently in the comments of the young members of the community.
Religious overtones of an organizational responsibility to the Youth emerge in the organization’s publications as well. In the seventh Annual Journal of the America Sevashram Sangha, an article about the Summer Camp held in 1997 began: “The ideals of Acharya Shrimat Swami Pranavanandaji Maharaj [were] to focus on the development of Leadership qualities in young men. Thus, the Mission of the America Sevashram Sangha also focuses on the developments of youths.”[14] The author of this article traces the objective of the youth camp back to the founder of the organization and in doing so highlights the dual nature of the youth focus. It is not only because the youth here need guidance but because it washes with the foundations of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha. The youth camp for Brahmachari Vidur is a space where the ashram can “disseminate a lot of teaching to them, especially moral values. We stress a life of celibacy and continence.”[15] The youth camp offers activities such as yoga, the singing of kirtans, and Hindi language classes. There is also an emphasis on connecting the children with their cultural heritage through the practice and performance of scenes from the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita.[16] The youth camp exemplifies the ashram’s attempt to meet the everyday needs of the youth, while imparting certain cultural or religious values of the community. It does so by keeping them engaged in a secure environment and by connecting their activities to practical, emotional, and cultural identity development.
When I asked if there were any youth programs at the Guyana Sevashram Sangha, Brahmachari Vidur responded:
Well we do have youth programs in Guyana, but you see with the influence of the American society the youths over here are much less intact because they are exposed to the society, to drugs, moral values- there’s so much over here… so we made more additional programs for them where in Guyana there may be very few, but we always keep focus on them here. Even in our Sangha it is one of its main principles because the youth are the foundation, the leaders of tomorrow.[17]
The concentration on “the leaders of tomorrow” in the broader sense of Youth provides a paradigmatic (he used the term “principles”) framework for the more pressing needs of the young members of the community in diaspora. The combination of global and local needs of the youth become linked by what appears to be a sense of moral superiority. The organization is preparing the youth to “fit in to society” but the society is, undoubtedly, demonized to a certain extent. This paradox is perhaps reconciled by Brahmachari Vidur’s micro and macro conceptualization of the youth. As both a concrete social reality and abstract category, “the youth” is clearly central to the discourse of the America Sevashram Sangha’s identity as both a religious semi-proselytizing[18] organization and a support for the local Guyanese community located in an urban American setting.[19] If the ashram can locate the problems of the diasporic culture in the local youth, it can also situate Youth in its larger prescribed goals of leading the world into a new and better age. However, as needs of the local youth come to represent the generalized needs for the world, what are the reverse effects and affects of such a transposition for the youth in Jamaica? This question will be addressed in the next section. Thus far, I hope to have demonstrated how the America Sevashram Sangha, as represented by Brahmachari Vidur, promotes a particular self-understanding of the ashram: as holding a position that can effect the youth on both local and global levels.
Youth on Youth: The Foundation Speaks
When I opened a dialogue with the younger members of the community I noticed that their conceptualization of the America Sevashram Sangha differed from that of Brahmachari Vidur and Mr. Kumar. I approached three young men and three young women (ages 14 to 23) that were sitting together in a circle of chairs in a section of the ashram that served as a multipurpose room for all the congregants. To my knowledge there is no particular space in the ashram specifically for the youth membership to gather.[20] I explained that I was doing a project and was interested in their thoughts. I was well received and welcomed into the circle. I asked them to tell me about the American Sevashram Sangha and what it meant to them. Some of the participants were more vocal but all showed a genuine interest in the topics discussed and the comments made by their peers. The topics of this informal conversation were not guided by me so much but developed spontaneously in response to each other’s comments. The responses were personal, in contrast to those mentioned above, and while they all acknowledged the America Sevashram Sangha’s concentration on the youth, they did not mention any global responsibility. Instead, the young men and women seem to describe the youth focus as one based on cultural fellowship, a specific kind of space in which the many identities of an American-Indo-Caribbean youth can be preserved and reconciled. [21]
Rodney F. Moag outlines the several stages of what he calls “Hindu identity formation” in America. Moag has termed the stage most relevant to this discussion as “Conflict and Compartmentalization.” He explains that the clash of messages coming from home and school leads to a process of compartmentalization. Moag claims that “it is during this period that these young people learn to compartmentalize their lives, following mainstream behavioral and other norms in school and in after school activities, both with his peers and authority figures …and an Indian set of norms…”[22] Moag’s argument resonates with the conceptualization of “youth focus” in the minds of the youth at the America Sevashram Sangha: It opens a space wherein creative and constructive Indo-Caribbean identities may emerge.
The focus on the generalized or global Youth, as expressed by the older members of the community, did not seem to translate into any serious pressure for my young informants. I noticed, rather, that their sentiments spoke to the exact opposite. The youth I spoke to in Jamaica seemed to feel that the ashram was a space free of both the pressures of private/family as well as public/school activities, a neutral ground of sorts. One of my informants, Melissa, conceptualizes the ashram along these lines. Melissa, twenty years of age, was born in the United States. Her family emigrated from Trinidad and now resides in New Jersey. Despite her physical distance from the America Sevashram Sangha, Melissa comes almost every Sunday to Jamaica with her family and is involved with the youth community at the ashram. Her description of the ashram is as follows:
Its hard, I mean, I’m American but my house is like so strict. And my friends they have just like a whole different style and values. It’s different. It’s like clubbing, what is a club? Its like, my house is not even like that. But then again, that why I like to come to temple ‘cause like my friends here are not really into that whole outside life, like, you know all this stuff, its like, we don’t believe in that. We believe in like being inside the home and then get out and marryin’, you know, and have, like, a respectful life…it’s hard, it’s hard.
Melissa’s seems to feel that the ashram (here she says “temple”) is a place where the pressures of the home and the pressures of “the whole outside life” can be reconciled. Notice that her idea of “temple” is based completely on social connectedness. The ashram becomes a place for the youth to meet other youth that can relate to her position. The ashram becomes a space where a complex, perhaps fragmented, second generation identity is normalized through fellowship with other West-Indian people. Junior, an active member in the ashram and in the organization of youth programs explained that “when you come here, when you see other kids doin’ it you think: oh this is normal. It doesn’t become strange.”[23] A concern with normality is clearly central to these young people, who have to juggle expectations that are imposed and perhaps eventually internalized.
Melissa’s stress on “temple” as a space for a specific social identity is not necessarily a departure from the self-understanding of the ashram as presented by Brahmachari Vidur and Mr. Kumar. It seems that comfortable socialization is the goal in both of their interpretations of the youth focus at the ashram; however, the means by which these youth achieve “well-roundedness” or “a proper foundation” are quite different. The younger informants seem to concentrate more on their identification with a community and personal relationships, whereas the leaders seemed to consider the ashram as more of a refuge from the corruption of the outside world. [24] I was told that some of the youth programs at the ashram served as an alternative to harmful “outside” activities. One informant told me, “We had a basketball program. Instead of guys goin’ to clubs we’d bring them to play basketball. We used to do that till like two in the morning– from 8 to 2 in the morning, so they used to play that Friday and Saturday nights.”[25] Junior presents the basketball games as an alternative to what both he and Melissa identify as club culture. By organizing an activity during the prime club hours, the ashram posits itself as a safe space in the eyes of the youth leaders. However, in the comments by my younger informants, it seemed less about “saving” youth, and more about actively bringing members of the community together in an all-inclusive manner.
For the youth at the ashram, it is not about a safe alternative, it is about an Indo-Caribbean alternative. One of the “youth” informants, Manauvaskar, accentuates the positive identity formation that could not come from anywhere else. He does not necessarily perceive the outside world as dangerous, but instead as void of a positive Indo-Caribbean image. Brahmachari Vidur stresses the lack of values, primarily family values; however, the lack he focuses on seems to be more abstract and moral-based, whereas Manauvaskar stresses a lack of representation, a social void for an Indo-Caribbean identity. He explains,
Being Indo-Caribbean and being American is kind of like a conflict of interests…you are brought up with all these ideals and then you come to America with these ideals, all the ideals of, you know, treating your parents with respect and respecting yourself in a very “Hindu” way. Little kids, you know, young Indo-Caribbean kids that come here are influenced by the media, or whatever and that’s what they- that’s what gets in there minds because that is what they grow up with…it’s hard. It’s really hard to maintain an Indo-Caribbean identity while at the same time having an American one…it can be really really damaging for a young kid.
He goes on to describe the role of the America Sevashram Sangha in repairing such damage:
It is about reinforcing your culture. That is why the ashram is here. They are here basically to show you what you are not going to find outside, on TV or outside anywhere else. You kind of have your own community. You can come here and see the community…it gives you a sense of belonging. [My emphasis]
The ashram as a social space not only allow for bonds between peers but also facilitates a larger identification with the West Indian community.[26] While an Indo-Caribbean identity might be a hindrance in other spaces, such as school or “outside” society, the informants expressed a feeling of pride and cultural belonging that seemed to be based on an increased visibility and inter-sociability of Indo-Caribbean life in New York at the Sunday service.[27]
My younger informants seemed to agree that the America Sevashram Sangha was a “family temple.” The youth focus was considered an “added plus” to temple social life that was unique for them. Melissa listed a few of the other temples that her family had visited and she stressed a feeling of social exclusion.[28] The locally organized activities for the youth at the ashram may be understood as safe alternatives to a corrupted outside society by the organization, but the youth involved seemed to conceptualize it less as a structured alternative and more as an active effort to build within-group relationships. Melissa does not indicate that the ashram activities are in defense of moral decay; rather she emphasizes that youth programs give the youth an acknowledged role in the community:
What I like about this temple is, like, they have youth groups, they have after school programs, they have camps every summer for my brother. They bring the kids involved in temple, and that’s why it’s good over here. You know, like, most times it is about the people, you know, like the older crowd. Over here you see a lot of kids, you know like, bonding together…I went to the Shiva Mandir and the one on 128th Street and Liberty Avenue. I went there. All the kids, there they weren’t friendly, I mean, they just stick to themselves, and it is more about adults- they just stand talking. But here it’s different…they bring youth groups, you know, camping, they all bring them together and just be friendly with them, you know, so it is more of like a bonding, basically, in temple.[29]
Junior, who is in his mid thirties, provides much insight into the slight gap in the understanding of youth focus. Being part of the ashram since he was 12 years old, he seemed to speak across what one might call the youth/leader divide. He took part in youth activities as a boy and now is very active in running some of the youth programs. His comments were the most comprehensive interpretations of the youth focus from both sides. For example, he speaks of a girl whose parents approached the ashram for help with their daughter: “She had a lot of issues in life where she was askin’ ‘what do my parents want outta me?’ Yeah, I mean, she grew up in a system where she was watching MTV and hears her father prayin’ everyday in a language she doesn’t understand. You know?” He acknowledged the difficulty of conflicting cultural pressures in a way that Brahmachari Vidur or Mr. Kumar, a semi-official spokesman for the organization, did not. Yet Junior echoes some of sentiments of global leadership when he explains the importance of productivity and “living like a brahmachari.”[30] The two perspectives of the youth focus, one described by the organization and one expressed in my conversations with the youth, seemed to coalesce quite nicely for him. His comments are exemplary of the different, while not divergent, conceptualizations of the ashram as youth-centered. Overall it becomes clear that youth and leaders put stress on different aspects of the youth focus, but both understood the America Sevashram Sangha to be exemplary in its positive effects of social identity formation.
A Double Diaspora: In Search for an Indo-Caribbean Role Model
When approaching a community in diaspora, the instinct to locate and analyze the effects of a geographical shift seems to take logical precedence. The assumption is that a move is made from one place to another. This creates dangerous and necessarily dichotomous categories of old/new, home/away, and authentic/creative, to name a few. The search for “roots”[31] may in fact be shortsighted and detrimental, especially in communities that have relocated more than once. As we have seen, questions of identity and belonging are multi-layered for the Guyanese youth at the ashram in Jamaica, Queens. I began to notice in my fieldwork that “feeling at home” was not something understood by location, but by a sense of relaxation that was not necessarily found in the private home of these youths. Instead it was more of a social belonging that could be found in the weekly visits to the ashram, where there was an increased visibility of cultural norms. As I conversed with the young members of the ashram, questions of whether they might like to go to India and Guyana—or why—did not seem relevant to their identity as twice migrated. In fact the focus of these “double diaspora” conversations all seemed to lead back to a want or need for a visible role model. As West-Indians in the United States, they are flooded with images of Indians and Americans, but are without a public figure that represents Indo-Caribbean culture. Manauvaskar articulates this problem,
I feel like young kids, especially Indo-Caribbean kids, don’t identify, I mean, they see Indian movies and they see Indian actresses and Indian actors- they identify with them because they are Indian and the are brown skinned, and in some sort of way they are like, wow, this is a fascinating film. But Indo-Caribbeans are kind of stuck because they don’t understand the language and they can’t truly identify. And they’re also stuck because although they see Indians, and India in business and all that stuff- you don’t see Indo-Caribbeans in the media-and we don’t see Indo-Caribbeans doing anything substantial where we can say and see them as role models or model figure so the young people say, ‘you know what? That guy is Guyanese. I identify with him.’ Or, ‘that film is a Guyanese film, I identify with that film and it makes me proud.’…I feel like our culture is growing in New York but it has a far way to go to gain recognition. And far ways to go to make our young people feel accepted for themselves, accepted in their own skin.[32]
As he spoke, the group nodded in agreement. Manauvaskar then referred to an earlier conversation with Melissa on the same issue, making it clear that many identified this as problematic for the youth at the ashram: the absence of a role model with whom they can identify.
America Sevashram Sangha may be the space in which an Indo-Caribbean role model can emerge. My argument here is based on my informants’ descriptions of their relationships with Swami Viydananda. I was told that he was a role model, a counselor, a friend, and a great religious teacher. His influence on these youth is, in my opinion, profoundly affects their interpretations of the America Sevashram Sangha and its place in their lives.
This need for an Indo-Caribbean role model was a consensus within the group of young people that I was talking with. The conversation shifted to Swami Vidyananda, indicating that he may fill this need for a public figure in a space largely populated by Guyanese and Trinidadian Hindus. Melissa describes her relationship with Swami Vidyananda:
Actually, I went through some serious stuff, and I don’t know how my mom found him, but like, he instilled so much in me and I look up to him so much. He was like, basically, my counselor…[33]
She goes on to explain that she can talk to her parents, but not in the same way or about the same issues. Perhaps the aforementioned normalizing effect of the ashram as a private-public[34] space gives way to such a relationship. Through comments like Melissa’s, several personal anecdotes, and a sharing of the Swami’s “words of wisdom,” I get the sense that Swami Vidyananda may be the only realistic “Indo-Caribbean Role Model” for the youth. His role as a spiritual leader was de-emphasized by the youth I spoke to.[35] Instead, my youth informants were more emphatic about his ability to “help all people.”
When I finally had the pleasure of sitting down with Swamiji, he described his role in the lives of the youth community in Guyana and in Queens. I began to realize that my idea was not far fetched: Swamji might indeed fill in the vacancy for an Indo-Caribbean role model. He emphasized that his effect on the youth is entirely by example, as opposed to any sort of formal teaching. For him, many years of celibacy and ultimate self-control were the key to changing the hearts and minds of the youth that he comes in contact with. He explains that the youth
are faced with difficulties to mix, those who are coming here not those who are born in this society, those who are now migrating. There is a vast difference of life. Here they are more relaxed in discipline–they don’t have the type of discipline that they have back home…The only way you can control them is by your own lifestyle, and through my lifestyle I have managed to do that…[36]
By living what he considers an exemplary life and making himself available to the youth, Swamiji both accepts his position as role model, and is accepted by the youth as such.
Conclusions:
All members of the ashram feel the effects of the America Sevashram Sangha’s focus on youth. As we have seen, this focus is interpreted and utilized differently by different groups in the congregation. For the leaders of the community, the youth focus in the Queens ashram has significance of global proportions. For the actual youth participants, the focus on the youth increases the sense of belonging — the ashram is for them as much as other members. The emphasis on social integration seems to cut across all of these group distinctions. However, within this emphasis there are different ideas of how and why such socialization is played out.
The question of formality is worthy of mention here. My conversations about the youth focus fell into two contrasting “styles” which for the most part depended on age and position. One took on a more official tone and I got the sense that he or she was painting the undisputable picture for me. The other style of conversation was more casual and focused largely on personal opinions.
I do not assume that young informants in this paper speak for all of the youth of the America Sevashram Sangha. In fact, the issues and sentiments expressed by these informants could be age specific and bear some relationship and/or significance to the fact that I am an outsider, a young woman, and an observer. I chose the age bracket of 14 to 25 because I found it the most accessible considering my own age and the group of most concern for the larger community in Queens. In my conversation with Swami Vidyananda he refers to the creative potential of this group, despite the challenges they face in a confusing and often hostile urban environment. For Swamji, these youth are, as he put it, “like a lotus on a muddy pond.”[37]
[1] Many names for the America Sevashram Sangha were offered to me in conversation. Dominant titles include temple, church, mandir, sangha, and ashram. I have chosen to use the word ashram here and will do so thoughout. The difficulty of labeling the place is most likely due to its multiplicity of functions that serve community, religious, as well as monastic needs. As both a dormitory for young monks and brahmacharis and a weekly meeting place for the congregation of Guyanese and other Indo-Caribbeans the America Sevashram Sangha as a space resists definition. I am using “ashram” in this paper because it is not only in the official name of the place, but also seems to be the most comprehensive, having both religious and community-oriented connotations.
[2] When I asked about the ashram I often received a long list of the programs offered for the youth: summer camp, singing lessons, Hindi and Spanish classes, homework help, an essay competition, etc.
[3] It was made abundantly clear by several members of the congregation that the ashram was in no way exclusive to Indo-Caribbeans or Hindus. It seemed to be a point made mostly by the older generation of members who emphasized the organization rather than the congregation. Also it was often mentioned as a kind of welcome to me as physically distinguishable “outsider”. One member, Vijram Raj Kumar, a teacher by profession, put it most succinctly: “ This organization does not only open its doors to Hindus, it is open to all. You can come in, anybody can come in here and pray; sit in prayer… it is not just for one set of people it is for all” (my emphasis).
[4] A term offered by both the leaders and members of the community that convenes at the ashram every Sunday.
[5] In her work with second generation Indians in New York, Sunaina Marr Maira discusses a “partitioning of their everyday life” where “cultural relativism becomes not an abstract idea but a lived experience” which results in a “reflexive vision” that can lead to “multiple identities”. She emphasizes that “dissonance can be woven into a narrative of identity, rather than understood as rupturing its fabric.” See Sunaina Marr. Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002), p. 100. The youth in diaspora, in other words, because they must be constantly weaving together a complex set of often opposing cultural “norms”, preserve themselves from a fragmented identity by embracing it. A somewhat contrary argument is put forth by Vijay Prashad who outlines this separation followed by an amalgamation of cultural norms as a “failure to offer a better account of the cultural capacity of desis in the United States.” See Vijay Prashad. The Karma of Brown Folk. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p. 125. He argues that this results in a fetishization of both Indian and American culture or in an experience of “acultural individualism”.
[6] Prema Kurien speaks to this point when she highlights the parallel fears of first generation Hindu Malayalees living in America. She notes that concrete threats of children becoming involved with drugs, alcohol, sex, and violence exist for these parents.These uncertainties seem to go in tandem with the larger fears that their children will become “alien” to them due to “values” they “pick up” outside the home (namely, school). Kurien explains that this “created a frightening feeling that the second generation was growing up to be total strangers with whom parents and other relatives could not even communicate” [my emphasis]. See Prema Kurien. “ Becoming American by Becoming a Hindu: Indian Americans Take Their Place at the Multicultural Table,” in R. Steven Warner and Judith G. Wittner, eds. Gathering in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), p.44.
I note the inclusion of “other relatives” here to underscore the idea that the dangers of cultural disconnect here extend past the functioning family unit; it is a block between generations and therefore becomes a severing off of an entire past.
[7] I find this an interesting term in and of itself. I noticed the term coming up frequently in conversation with several of the members of the ashram and also in a few of the articles of the America Sevashram Sangha Yearly Journal. A discourse on the conceptualization of “values” is far too expansive for the purposes of this paper yet I feel the ambiguity of the term worthy of mention. Notice that within the first few minutes of my conversation with Brahmachari Vidur, part of which is quoted below, the issue of low morals is raised. It became clear to me that a lowered standard of values was based on what was understood to be givens: respect for elders and a life of self-control. Whether these social givens are religious or cultural, the emphasis on values raises important issues of subjectivity in the understanding of life in New York.
[8] I am borrowing this term from Brahmachari Vidur.
[9] My interview with Swami Vidyananda took place at Divya Dham in Woodside, Queens.
[10] Brahmachari Vidur, Interview, America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[12] Vijram Raj Kumar, Interview, America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[13] Steven Vertovec explains that religion is a unifier in diaspora that can create solidarity across ethnic groups. He quotes Robin Cohen, who argues that religions can “provide additional cement to bind diasporic consciousness.” See Stephen Vertovec. The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns. (New York: Routledge, 2000), p.3.
Kurien argues that assuming a religious identity facilitates a transition into an American identity. In other words, the religious restructuring of a community in diaspora translates into social contextualization of an identity no longer based on nationality. See Kurien. “ Becoming American by Becoming a Hindu: Indian Americans Take Their Place at the Multicultural Table,” in R. Steven Warner and Judith G. Wittner, eds. Gathering in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), p.37. Also relevant is the acknowledged legal status of religion as opposed to other cultural or ethnic markers.
Steven Warner quotes religion scholar Raymond Williams: “In the United States, religion is the social category with the clearest meaning and acceptance in the host society, so the emphasis on religious affiliation and identity is one of the strategies that allows the immigrant to maintain self identity while simultaneously acquiring community acceptance”. See Steven Warner,“The Place of the Congregation in the Contemporary American Religious Configuration” in American Congregations,Vol. II, James P. Wind and James Welborn Lewis, eds., (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p.70.
[14] Author Unknown, The America Sevashram Sangha Seventh Annual Journal
[15] Brahmachari Vidur, Interview, America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[16] The America Sevashram Sangha Seventh Annual Journal.
[17] Brahmachari Vidur, Interview, The America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[18] I use this term with some caution. I am referring here to ideas expressed in some of the pamphlets and short books given to me at the ashram. Most of these books were published by the Bharat Sevashram Sangha and emphasize the mission articulated by Swami Pranavananda to spread his teachings around the globe (with an emphasis of specific need in the “West”). Some exemplary comments can be found in a short book entitled Foundations of Religion: Bharat Sevashram Sangha, which begins: “To build up a world-nation on the basis of true religion, the Great Swami Pranavanandaji Maharaj founded the Bharat Sevashram Sangha.” The book ends with an emphasis on global responsibility: “His clarion call echoing and reaching throughout the four corners of the world is ‘India will not sleep for a long time more. She will awake from her long slumber and rise again and be crowned with the glory of the World-Teacher, and she will shine with full effulgence’” See p.138.
[19] Warner in his explanation of the “diffuse” and “particularistic” nature of congregations in America explains that in order for religious education to be effective, especially in an immigrant community, “the teacher must be fluent both in religion and in the setting of the congregation”. In Warner, “The Place of the Congregation in the Contemporary American Religious Configuration,” p.65.
[20] I noticed that the young members of the ashram seemed comfortable convening anywhere in the space and did so freely.
[21] Warner points out that there is a “fellowship” or social dimension of religious assemblies that is marked by a “relative familiarity” and an opportunity to interact with other members of the community who otherwise might be geographically scattered. See Warner “The Place of the Congregation in the Contemporary American Religious Configuration,” pp. 67-73. I borrow this idea of “fellowship” from his analysis.
[22] Rodney F. Moag, “Negative Pressures in the American Educational System on Hindu Identity Formation, Part Two: The Effects of Tertiary Education” in T. S. Rukmani, ed., Hindu Diaspora: Global Perspectives. (Montreal: Concordia University, 1999). p.254
[23] Junior, Interview, The America Sevashram Sangha. March 8, 2003.
[24] This would be an interesting idea to pursue. The conceptualization of the America Sevashram Sangha as a refuge would fall in line with the Hindu concept of ashram. This would tie in with the global responsibility of the America Sevashram Sangha as part of lineage of social service or seva.
[25] Junior, Interview, The America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[26] Kurien gets similar feedback from her young informants. She also points out that the effects of OHM association on their children “have sometimes been overstated by adults”. See Kurien’s “Becoming America by Becoming Hindu,” p. 50. Her findings seem to converge with my research. The conceptualization of the ashram by both generations at the America Sevashram Sangha is positive and largely social. Yet the global effects of the youth focus are stressed in the adult interpretations of the youth experience.
[27] Manauvaskar stressed the feeling of unity in the Phagwa parade that takes places every spring in Queens. He spoke to the idea that it was a specific kind of experience to share in the same celebration with other Indo-Caribbeans especially as someone who grew up in New York and “hasn’t felt that unity with other people because of their culture”. It became clear throughout the conversation that the ashram served as a weekly dose of this cultural reinforcement where being “different” was no longer different.
[28] The teenage informants express this feeling of exclusion for young people in American Hindu spaces as in Kurien’s(1998) work as well. See Kurien, “Becoming American by Becoming Hindu,” p.39.
[29] Melissa, Group Interview, The America Sevashram Sangha, March 8,2003.
[30] He seems to understand “living like a brahmachari” in terms of self sufficiency and self-control.
Junior, Interview, America Sevashram Sangha, March 8,2003.
[31] Steven Vertovec discusses this fall back to the circumscription of India as the “’true’ normative form” in Hindu diaspora studies. He calls for an abandonment this archetypal methodology and a new understanding of religious and cultural development See Vertovec, The Hindu Diaspora, p.2.
[32] Manauvaskar, group interview, America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[33] Melissa, Group Interview, America Sevashram Sangha, March 8, 2003.
[34] I am borrowing this term from Steven Warner’s “The Place of the Congregation in the Contemporary American Religious Configuration,” p. 70.
[35] However, some young members shared what seem to be semi-mystical bibliographical descriptions of Swami Vidyananda. For example, Shri Ram told me that he never sleeps and that he has some prophetic capabilities. These descriptions may reinforce his role as some kind of heroic model. This remains to be explored.
[36] Swami Vidyananda, Interview, Divya Dham, April 18, 2003.
[37] Swami Vidyananda, Interview, Divya Dham, April 18, 2003.