I had a dream in the beginning of May 2004 where I prayed to Ganesh (the elephant God in Hinduism). This dream came as a surprise to me because I'm not even Hindu. In my dream I was looking up at a huge mountain, and in the center of the mountain there was a large cave. In that cave sat a huge statue of Ganesh. He was blue-colored, had an elephant's head, a big belly, and sat in a meditation posture, with a total of 8 arms (4 on each side). Carved into the mountain were many writings and artworks of elephants. I took a moment to take in the whole grandness of the mountain and the artworks carved onto it. In front of me, I noticed there were many people dressed in white prayer clothing. They were all on their knees with their heads touching the ground praying to Ganesh up in the mountain. Like them, I bowed down and in the same manner pay my respects. Then I awoke from my dream.

Once awaken, I did some research online and found my dream of the elephant God to be Ganesh (I didn't know he had a name before). And all the pictures I found online were so much like the Ganesh in my dream. But I didn't really gave much thought to the dream. It was only this year, that I found from a website that this God is the remover of obstacles and it is best to pray to him before starting any new journey. And in my case, my journey was a first-time study abroad trip to China in early June 2004. Realizing Ganesh provided me with blessings before my trip, my family and I visited a Hindu Temple in Brooklyn this year. This dream is a wonderful illustration of the importance of religious harmony.

My message is that it doesn't matter what beliefs or religion one is in, we should not have conflicts, but instead should respect and admire the good qualities of each other's belief/religion to share the message of religious harmony and bring peace to our world.

*Note: Photos of my Summer 2004 trip to China can be found here: http://misc.tienderhealing.org/photos/Brooklyn_College_in_China_Summer_2004/