OM at the Oscars

I'm excited to be launching my new blog, Spirit on the Web. It's easy to use and anyone can reply. All responses are welcome (well, aside from hateful language and commercial solicitations, that kind of stuff). I'll be discussing whatever comes up for me, and occasionally posting prepared essays on various topics. But I'll also respond to news stories and developments that have to do with the world's religions, or spiritual principles in action.

Today, for instance, I can't help commenting on something extraordinary that happened at the Oscars Sunday night. You could have easily missed it, because it was sandwiched in an acceptance speech for a minor award (minor to us, of course, not to the craftspeople who work in the field). One of the three winners for Best Sound Mixing on Slumdog Millionaire was an Indian film sound designer named Resul Pookutty. I'm sorry to say I haven't yet seen the film, but when I do I'll keep my ears open. Pookutty became almost certainly the first Oscar winner in history to give deference to the Primordial Sound--and how unexpected was that? 

Resul Pookutty accepts his Oscar (Gary Hershorn / Reuters)

He said, in part, "I share the stage with two magicians [Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp] who created the very ordinary sounds of Bombay, the cacophony of Bombay, into a soul-stirring, artful resonance called Slumdog Millionaire. I come from a country and a civilization that given [sic] the universal word. That word is preceded by silence, followed by more silence. That word is 'Om.' So I dedicate this award to my country."

So, how many millions of people around the world heard the acknowledgement of Om as the universal sound, even semi-consciously? Pookutty's syntax may have been less than perfect, at least as the transcript reported, or maybe he was justifiably nervous (still, his English is so much better than my Hindi), but what he said resonates throughout the spiritual world.

And this happened less than a week after Vice President Joe Biden pronounced the reverential Sanskrit greeting Namaste during an internationally televised event at which President Obama signed the new economic stimulus bill. Actually, Biden slightly mispronounced the word, accenting the second syllable instead of the first. The Vice President was introducing Blake Jones, the CEO of a green energy company called Namaste Solar, who gently chided Biden for his pronunciation. (A posting by an employee of Namaste Solar admitted that Biden's is still a common pronunciation and that people who work there say it that way on occasion.) The previous administration paid lip service to green and sustainable energy production practices, but Colorado-based Namaste Solar appears to be the very template of a thoughtfully conceived and run business. Read their mission statement and see for yourself.

Namaste literally means "I bow to you," from the Sanskrit namas ("bow"), but is often translated as or understood to mean "the Light within me bows to the Light within you." In Sanskrit, naman or nama means name, often understood as the divine name (Brahman, Shiva, Vishnu, etc.), as in japanama, the repetition of the name of God, so that meaning may be implied anyway.

That a power company would take a name that evinces reverence to others and embodies a set of sustainable principles and mutual respect, is itself extraordinary and, we hope, indicative of more good things to come in these apparently hard times. Namaste Solar's Web site promises to: "Compensate ourselves equitably and fairly. We have a flat salary structure whereby no one earns more than twice what anyone else earns. We enjoy six weeks of paid-time-off per year." I consider that practical spirituality, or what Ram Dass called Compassion in Action.

Above all, that's a lot of Sanskrit being uttered on the world stage for one week. Does it augur real change (we can believe in) or is it "only" synchronicty?