Pivoting to Dharmic Actions: Celebrating Makar Sankranti
A night lit up on Makar Sankranti Uttarayana Festival with Kites and Lights.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
Kite flying the in old city of Ahmedabad on Utran as a child was so much fun. We would go with friends to their old house in the Teen Darvaza area, and the day would be spent flying kites from the roof tops. The older kids would have fancy kites and sharp threads coated with glass for their fights, while the younger ones had simple big kites with soft strings that did not fly very far but were still a lot of fun. As the day went on, aamras and undhiyu and pooris and all kinds of delicious food would emerge from kitchens, and we would eat while keeping an eye on the champion kites from our roof. Every so often, we would see either our own kites or a neighbor’s fall, and young men would race over the roofs to get to the fallen kite and claim their trophies. It was always be a lovely full day of laughter and joyful tears and food and family.
That area has always had a very high percentage of Muslim families, in part because people would not sell them homes on the other side of the river. As Ahmedabad has become more segregated, that area has become increasingly “Muslim”. As a child, I saw that moving the festival to the new part of the city was less fun, and yet the food and family was still great fun. At the same time as the festival itself has been commercialized, with the unique kites of our childhoods replaced with mass-produced commercial versions, so has deliberately engineered communal violence and killing become normalized in segregated communities. Just as we are now sold these cheap, commercial kites that dilute our childhood innocenese and sense of joy, we are increasingly being sold a fake version of Hindu dharm, too.
As the only solar festival in the national Hindu calendar, Makar Sankranti is a unique festival at the all-India scale. It marks the transition from winter to spring, from the South to the North (Uttarayan becoming Utran), from the quiet to the active. In the poetry of India, this is the time that the Sun returns to the Earth, coming closer and renewing the warmth and learning.
This pivot is a significant dharmic moment. It offers everyone – no matter our orientation or karma – an opportunity to celebrate joy and hope. It is the return to goodness, it is the celebration of harvests (with Pongal, Lohri, Bihu and other celebrations). Today is a good day to give gifts and be generous. As the Sun comes closer to us, it warms our souls and hearts, making our generosity deeper and kinder. As we act in good ways, we make the world a little better and nicer.
As Hindus for Human Rights, we celebrate the genuine right that we have as Hindus and as people to choose a better world and a kinder reality. There is plenty of harshness and sorrow in the world, but we can choose to make a better world, one where we can care deeply and act lovingly. My beloved Hanumanji did his studies by running backward in front of Surya dev’s chariot while he kept moving across the sky. For most of us, the path to be kind does not need us to turn back – just to turn away from the temptations to be angry and greedy, and to listen to our souls and hearts. This is the deep truth of the Hindu dharm – and it is the invitation on this festival day – to pivot to a deeper life in our dharm.