Author:
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 28,
2000
Toronto (Agencies) -
It is amazing how a person born as a Catholic, baptised as such and growing
up in Caracas, Venezuela, where almost the entire population is Roman Catholic,
takes an interest in Hinduism and translates the Bhagavad Gita into Spanish.
The author of the first
Bhagavad Gita in Spanish titled "Bhagavad Guita - El Canto Del Senor" (song
of God) is Mora Abilahoud Singh, the wife of V P Singh, who recently retired
as India's ambassador to Cuba. He was earlier posted to Venezuela
where he met Mora, fell in love with her and got married. They now
live in the temple town of Rishikesh in Uttar Pradesh.
Last week Mora Singh
was in Caracas to attend a special function held at the Banco Industrial
de Venezuela that financed the publication of the Bhagwad Gita in Spanish,
thanks to the intervention of Venezuelan Ambassador in New Delhi, Walter
Marquez.
She told the agencies
in an interview in Toronto that Fernando Alvarez, the president of Banco
Industrial de Venezuela, had invited large number of guests for the formal
release of the book.
"The copy was wrapped
in flowers. I sprinkled some holy Ganges water on the book and then
it was released with all fanfare. I carried a large jug of water
from Ganges (she lives by the side of Ganges in Rishikesh) to Caracas specially
for the function," Mora Singh said.
"When we explained that
it is a holy water, people in fact wanted to drink it but I cautioned them
otherwise because water was collected from the Ganges during the rainy
season," she said.
A copy of the book was
also presented to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when he recently stopped
over in Mumbai, she said.
Mora Singh said the Spanish
translation was done from an English version of the Bhagwad Gita but she
studied several texts, including Sanskrit, before she started translating
it into Spanish. She said that it took her three years to complete
it, adding that what she had done was to change the spellings of several
names and places in such a way that phonetically when spoken in Spanish
those names "don't sound differently than when Hindi- speaking people pronounce
those names."
There are several names
of Lord Krishna in Bhagwad Gita. Mora Singh said she maintained uniformity.
"Just Krishna all through the text as it makes it easier for non-Hindu,
Spanish speaking people to understand and not to get confused while reading
the text," she said.
Asked whether she had
converted to Hinduism after marrying V P Singh, she said, "No such conversion
is needed as I have no religion." When asked whether she was an atheist,
her answer was in the negative. "God is one but God has different
names."
Singh also said that
she came from an enlightened and educated family. She herself studied
philosophy and theology. Unlike most Catholics, she never believed
that there is only one God and that God is Jesus Christ. "God has
many names," she said repeatedly.
