HAF NEXTGEN Essay Contest Winner for 2012

The Hindu American Foundation has held an annual essay contest in its ongoing efforts to build Hindu solidarity. In 2012, Suneeta Israni won First Place. Below you will find and excerpt from her winning essay. She wrote to the following prompt: If I were elected President of the United States, my Hindu principles would inspire me to... 

                 If I were President of the United States, my Hindu principles would inspire me to plant a lotus in the White House Garden. For if I planted a Lotus, I would have the privilege of seeing that even though its petals close each night and sink to reside within the murky darkness at the bottom of the pond, it nonetheless will rise each dawn to display its beauty.

                I would have the privilege of learning that no matter how hard I tried to bend its stalk, the stem of the Lotus flower will never break.

                I would have the privilege of remembering that the distance between the Lotus flower and the water, instituted by the stem, represents what the Honorable Siddhartha Gautama’s once said, “the [spotless] spirit of the best of men, like the new lotus in the [murky] water which does not adhere to it.”

                I would have the privilege of appreciating that at every stage for any purpose, whether raw or cooked, roasted or boiled, roots or leaves, it would be safe and beneficial to consume. These privileges, however, do not come alone. They bestow upon me the responsibility to extract the lessons from the Lotus flower and apply them to the world we live in today.