The Om

Today marks the 62nd Republic Day of India, after its Constitution finally took effect in 1950. The day also marks the self-rule independence declaration of 1930, though India’s Independence Day from England is celebrated on Aug. 15, after its independence from the British Empire in 1947.

Combining the sounds aa, au, and ma, one gets Om or Aum, the Hindu representation of the “Absolute,” the “One” and the “All.” It is related to the Latin “M,” the Arabic “Amen,” the Greek “Alpha-Omega,” and the words “omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.” It is also the OM in the Buddhist declaration of absolute compassion, om mani padme hum.

It was in the late ’70s in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, when I wandered into the town bazaar on a humid August day. I stood between a caprine/ovine pens where goats and lambs liberally spread their droppings on the ground mixed with the rotten leaves of their dinner on one side, and stalls of bottled oil exuding distilled fragrances on the other. No one seemed bothered by what we experienced as a conflict of scents until I noticed a storefront brushing fresh bovine dung on its wall and dried ones to fuel the fire. Then I understood what taking all and embracing the totality of existence meant. Inhaling and exhaling simultaneously, I uttered my first genuine Om.

I am reminded of the Indian all-encompassing sacred Om today, while watching President Barack Obama of the United States deliver his annual State of the Union address before Congress, the justices of the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and 750 guests up in the gallery. In a masterful tour de force that was at once presidential and a spirited election campaign speech, Obama gave an American can-do and can-be, yes-we-can speech, in full bloom of confident resolve and imaginative optimism.

To be sure, the President had words that may not be welcomed on Wall Street, in China, and Congress, but they were objectively delivered without the harsh accusatory overtones common and typical of the sarcastic taunting that seem to now identify American political discourse.

In like manner, the response from Indiana Republican Governor Mitch Daniels who played “loyal opposition” quibbled a bit on the side about minor matters but the clarity of his prepared response that the situation is not a matter of disagreement of philosophy or principles but on mathematics and practice was made clear, resulting in the event as hardly the media’s anticipated locking of horns between combative adversaries.

To begin with, the adversarial climate beclouding every reporting media these days is not only true in politics but even in the arts. Comments about the list of Oscar award nominations, for example, are focused on what and who is not on the list rather than on the merits of the nominations made. We commented recently on the New York Times review of Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War where the critic belabored what the movie did not portray and missed what was depicted altogether.

Pundits criticizing Obama or the GOP candidates often pick on what candidates do not say or do, rather than on what was said or done. This litany of failure grabs more attention in a way that a narrative of what was accomplished cannot. We drown continually in our time in the sea of public relations so our first instinct is to distrust the validity of ordinary claims and seek hidden agendas or prepackaged messages.

Subtle change occurred when Gabrielle Giffords attended the 2011 SOTU and members of Congress partnered with their counterparts on the other side of the divide. They did so again this year. Though the gesture did not extend into the voting record last year, the call for traversing party lines uttered by both Obama and Daniels could very well bring seriousness to the projected image that the Union might have some setbacks, but it is far from being KO’d in the new global ring of fire!

Increasingly, the militant American Christian nation of archangel Michael and the predatory eagle is finding some of its sensitive souls echoing the Om of another clime.

Obama did begin and end with images of the warriors of war, which sounded like the Empire Strikes Back on the OCCUPY folks. Yet, he drew a distinct line: “What’s at stake is the very survival of the basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well enough to raise a family, own a home, and put a little away for retirement. The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent; no debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while more Americans barely get by. Or we can build a nation where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules” (italics added).

In Governor Daniels’ Republican response, he declared: “So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality. The challenges aren’t matters of ideology, or party preference; the problems are simply mathematical, and the answers are purely practical.”

We might differ on the “think” but if we agree on the “do,” let’s. America of hope, it is, for everyone. Namaste. Om.