MemChurch Daily
April 20, 2021
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PRACTICING HOPE
The daily newsletter of the Memorial Church
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Dear friends,
Today we are delighted to share with you a reflection by Sonya Kalara '21 of Leverett House in our Virtual Senior Talks series of 2021. Senior Talks are a beloved annual tradition in which each House at the College is invited to nominate a senior to offer a Morning Prayers address. We are honored to continue this tradition virtually this year by way of uplifting their reflections in our Daily Devotional. Thank you Sonya, today we celebrate you and all your fellow Leverett House seniors!
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The Memorial Church of Harvard University
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SENIOR TALKS
Leverett House's Sonya Kalara '21
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By Sonya Kalara '21
Leverett House
It’s Friday at 4:45pm. The week has been a tough one, as all Harvard weeks are. Deadlines marked me as their prey and swooped in from all directions as I desperately weaved through their varied attacks.
I step out of Leverett House, and walk across the yard. Before long, I am standing in front of Canaday B Basement. To most people on campus, this little inlet is like any other. But for me and my community, this underground space holds the heart and hearth of Harvard College.
I step inside and I can hear the cacophony of kind voices that fill the room. I take off my coat and my shoes, adding them to the heaping pile outside of the door. Backpacks, shoelaces, and jackets tangle together in a massive mound.
I walk inside the Prayer Space and my friends stand before me, clad in socks and big smiles. The room is covered in carpet, and 20 pillows of varying shapes and sizes hug the back wall. Statues of Hindu Gods and Goddesses stand on a low dais by the front, collected by generations of Harvard Dharma members. Conversation bubbles up in different parts of the room, discussing the intensity of the week with lightheartedness. Everyone appears to be inhaling at the same time, our first deep breath in days. We gather in a semicircle as the bell begins to chime.
The diya is set alight, and the two people currently holding it are bathed in the soft light of the flame. We take another deep breath, and we sing together as one. “Om Jaya Jagadish Hare, Swami Jaya Jagadish Hare…” The plate is passed between pairs, and the voices of my friends fill my chest with serenity. Every time, I feel like crying.
We keep repeating the last stanza until everyone has had a turn holding the diya. Another friend offers the light to each of us individually, and I bring my hands just above the flame, soaking in the divinity. We sit for three minutes in silence, meditating together. Siva then begins his first of three Oms. We all join in, pushing our lungs to keep producing the sound for as long as possible, the resonance filling our minds. We open our eyes after the final Om and stare at each other, beaming.
Sonya Kalara is originally from Los Angeles, California, and they are going to be relocating to Atlanta, Georgia after graduation. They are a thesis-writing senior in the Economics department, and they are also pursuing a secondary in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Sonya is very involved in South Asian life including Harvard Dharma, the South Asian Association, and Ghungroo (the largest student-run production on campus). They also teach economics and statistics classes as a tutor / course assistant, and Sonya was an overnight supervisor at Y2Y Cambridge for many years before the pandemic struck.
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