From struggling to find a priest to dedicating a special song at the wedding… This is how a dad made his gay son’s wedding special.
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00:00I thought getting a pundit was an easy thing.
00:02When I talked about gay wedding, they were totally freaked out.
00:05Vijaybhai, are you out of your mind?
00:07Hindu tradition has nothing about gay wedding.
00:09Dharma means to live an authentic life.
00:12It would be wrong for Parag to fake that he's normal
00:16and marry a woman. That would be adharma.
00:19So if they are joining in a holy matrimony
00:22and a committed relationship,
00:24there is nothing wrong.
00:30This is my first gay wedding, by the way.
00:53And for many of you, this might be your first gay wedding to attend.
00:57I thought getting a pundit was an easy thing.
00:59I knew so many pundits.
01:01I said, OK, we can manipulate this here and there and we'll do it.
01:05There are three types of priests I met.
01:07Some of them are good friends of mine.
01:09Category one, when I talked about gay wedding,
01:12they were totally freaked out.
01:13Vijaybhai, are you out of your mind?
01:15Hindu tradition has nothing about gay wedding.
01:17And this would be absolutely this and that.
01:20And I didn't even have guts to tell that I am trying to plan a gay wedding.
01:23So category one was eliminated.
01:26Category two, they were good people.
01:29They kind of understood that what I was trying to say.
01:32I said, but Vijaybhai, this is a problem.
01:34Everything we speak is about Vishnu and Lakshmi and procreation
01:38and producing the babies and these guys can't do that.
01:42So it would be wrong for me to do the Vedic mantra
01:45to unite these two people in a Hindu tradition.
01:48And then the third type was very practical.
01:51They said, listen, I don't mind doing it, but if I did your job,
01:54maybe the other people, my customer base will go down
01:56because they think I am weird and trying to bless this thing.
02:00So they were chickened out.
02:02So finally, when I couldn't find anything, I called Swami Sivatmananda
02:07and he completely cleared it up.
02:09He said, listen, dharma means to living authentic life.
02:14It would be wrong for Parag to fake that he's normal and marry a woman.
02:19That would be adharma.
02:21The fact that he chose Vaibhav on his own voluntary desire
02:27and Vaibhav chose Parag is actually a dharmic thing.
02:30So if they are joining in a holy matrimony and a committed relationship,
02:36there is nothing wrong.
02:37As I went through all this thing, Parag and Vaibhav, I realized one thing.
02:42That even after having Parag for 20 years,
02:45I had no idea that even for the simplest thing,
02:50I want my wedding in my tradition.
02:53I want my wedding in Jain religion.
02:55These people have to struggle.
02:58We don't realize this.
03:00And I suddenly, it dawned on me that this is the thing.
03:03So then, while I want to wish you two a very long and happy wedded life,
03:09and on your name, we are going to donate $10,000 to Ekal Vidyalay.
03:16I want to quote a song that says,
03:21Pighala de janjeerai, you have shackles, you melt it.
03:26And bana de samseerai, means make the sword out of that.
03:30And you try to fight every challenge that comes your way.
03:34And then it goes, supposing the kismat is not against you,
03:39your luck rootjaye, then if your luck is not with you or your samseerai breaks,
03:45you have halved the sword, you keep on fighting for the right thing.
03:49And the last one is, kar har meydan fateh,
03:52means may you win every challenge.
03:55And that's my blessing to you.