Watching Zubin Mehta conduct an orchestra of world-class musicians on his 80th birthday or viewing Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers’ partnership of 229 runs at the IPL T-20 series are out-of-this-world experiences. Differences in culture, religion, language, style and temperament of these maestros notwithstanding, their synergy is awesome, incredible and heavenly! Sublime examples of unity in diversity.
Three days of this week celebrate unity in diversity: Pentecost Sunday (May 15), UN World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (May 21) and International Day for Biodiversity (May 22). While the first is a Christian feast, the second celebrates our humanity: united-in-diversity, and the third commemorates the differences that characterise our cosmic communion.
The word Pentecost (Greek, meaning “50th day”) was traditionally celebrated as the 50th day after the Jewish Passover feast. Christians celebrate it as the 50th day after Easter Sunday, when Christ rose from the dead and promised his disciples the “gift of the Spirit”. The Acts of the Apostles narrates the disciples’ experience when the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the form of tongues of fire. There’s a pun on the word glossa that can mean both, “tongue” and “language”. Animated by the Spirit-filled tongues, when the disciples begin preaching Jesus’ “good news” (gospel), their speech is understood by all peoples — each one in one’s own language.
Since Pentecost was also a harvest festival, the Bible speaks of “fruits of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are virtues that need to be cultivated to lead a spirited, happy, healthy and spiritual life.
Celebrating “World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development” we could heed the UN’s exhortation to take concrete action to support diversity.
