My inbox was flooded today with emails from friends, co-workers, and family members, full of smiley face emoticons and an overuse of exclamation marks, excitedly directing me to YouTube to see President Obama deliver his Diwali Message. The two minute video has Mr. Obama summarizing the significance of Diwali for Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs, and asking that we take the opportunity to reflect on those less fortunate.

Of particular delight to Vaishnava-Hindus (the majority of the folks flooding my inbox): in recounting one of the more popular Diwali narratives, President Obama took the name of Lord Rama. According to the tradition, one’s life can be perfected just by uttering once the sacred sound of Rama’s name.

Whether one believes that Obama earned cosmic credits by mentioning Rama by name, or just that he racked up good PR with the Hindu-American community, I expect that the emails flooding my inbox — smiley faces, exclamation marks, and all — will keep coming.

Here’s the video:

Video courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov and YouTube. After the video playsthere may be several links presented to other videos. Om Sweet Om has no control over the selections presented and is notresponsible for their contents.