RELIGION was something
I hadn’t expected in India. I mean, I know
every country has religion, but I wasn’t prepared for the PERVASIVENESS of it
in India. Religion is EVERYWHERE there –
it is in the way people dress, the way they eat, the way they relate to one
another, the way they worship, the way they celebrate, it is even in their
politics. Religion is an integral part
of life there in a much more “real” sense than I see in America.
And religion in India
is SO DIVERSE. There are many, many
different faiths represented throughout the country – Hindu (the majority
religion of the country), Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Bahai, Christian, Catholic,
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Parsi… And it
seems, at least to this outside observer, that the different religions coexist
in harmony. There do not appear to be
overt attempts at convincing others that one religion is “right” and therefore “better”
and others should convert to it. It seems
to be accepted that Indians have an ingrained religion, practice it faithfully,
and respect other people’s right to do the same.
I don’t normally
discuss this, but I guess I need to explain here that David and I do not
practice a religion. He has never been
involved with a formal religion, and I grew away from the one I was raised
in. I do consider myself a spiritual
person, but I do not conform to a prescribed religious belief. I guess these days I would say that KINDNESS
is my religion. I take time daily to
pause and pray – mostly to reflect on all that I have to be THANKFUL for. Oh sure, I throw in an “ask” every now and
then, even though I am not directing the prayer to anyone in particular. So it is from that “outside formal religion”
view that we could examine the religious practices shown to us in India. It was LOVELY.
 |
| Man dressed to enter the Sanctum Sanctorum - traditional dhoti (long) and no shirt |
First, the
observations here are mine alone and not meant to judge or offend. But let me say that IF I were going to choose
an Indian religion to jump into, it would hands down be Hinduism! It is amazing in its colorfulness!!! Not only are the TEMPLES full of bright paint
and wonder, but the CHARACTERS and the TALES are soooo vibrant!!! Oh, and the CUSTOMS!!!! We saw our first Hindu temple on the night we
arrived in Delhi and were on our own exploring.
We had wandered through a small market (wide eyed since we had just
arrived in the country and everything was brand spanking new to us…) and as we
walked through the market it became clear that there was a queue of people
heading toward something. Shoes were
strewn in piles and people walked barefoot.
One woman repeatedly laid completely face down on the (dirty) street,
placing her entire body and face on the ground, one body length at a time. She was prostrating herself reapeatedly,
heading to the temple. When we reached
the end of the queue we understood – they were all lining up to go into the
temple. We did not feel like we could
join them (as total outsiders) so we did not get to see inside the temple. I did not expect that we would be allowed in
any temples – they seem so sacred. So I
was amazed, delighted, and in awe when a guide took us into our first
temple. It was wonderful!!! The artwork was so intricate, telling the
stories of some of the many gods of the religion. And the BELL, oh the BELL is quite
fabulous!! There is a bell in the center
of the space which Hindus ring as they enter.
The ringing clears the mind and brings a focus to believers. But because there is no “set time” for
services, people come and go and ring the bell at will. This makes for a musical delight! The BEST was watching little kids ring
it! Most were lifted up by their parents
to ring the bell with huge smiles, but we particularly liked watching the
chubby kid (universal, isn’t it?) jump, jump, and jump some more, trying with
all his might to RING THAT BELL on his own.
We ended up seeing the inside of a few temples and they were all so
colorful and celebratory.
 |
| If THIS was in your place of worship, wouldn't you just be EXCITED? I would. |
 |
| In the Varkala Temple |
 |
Most temples have flower stalls near them - people buy and bring flowers to leave at the temple.
Lots of bright orange marigolds!
|
Hindus have SO MANY
traditions, all of which are NEW to us. First
off, the belief in so many gods, each of which appear to have “sub-gods”… There are some “main gods” but if you take
them ALL into account, there are thousands (is what they told us J ). Each of the gods is
represented in different manners in different places, so “who is who” can be
confusing to outsiders like us! But when
we asked, someone was always happy to explain, “Oh! That is VISHNU!” or “Oh, that’s Shiva!” or,
my particular favorite, “That is Hanuman, the MONKEY GOD!”. Yes, there is a MONKEY GOD! And, go figure, part of his trait is that he
LIKES BUTTER!!! So in one temple the
carving of Hanuman was SMEARED WITH LOADS OF BUTTER, which apparently some
people take a finger full of and lick as they pass by. J (I personally expected a Monkey God to be a
fan of bananas, but I guess that is far too obvious, isn’t it?)
 |
| Hanuman! |
 |
| And another Hanuman, this time smeared with butter |
Hindus have priests in
the temples. People bring things (fruit,
flowers, nuts, etc) and give them to the priests, and the priests apply marks
to the foreheads of followers. Because
we are so sensitive in America to not appropriating other people’s cultures, I in
no way expected to get a marking. However,
Indian people do not seem to be at all offended by Westerners or other
outsiders taking part, so without hesitation our guide pulled us up to the
front of the temple and we were greeted by the priest and given a marking!
 |
| David's mark |
 |
| Varkala Temple - isn't it amazing?? |
 |
| My mark |
Hindu people seem to
have many, many traditions, most of which were incredibly wonderful to an
outsider like me to witness!!! Several
people (Hindu themselves) told us that Hindus are “superstitious” and that does
seem to be the case J. They have these great necklaces that they
give to children to keep them safe – the metal part is a locking tube that
contains a little scroll that a priest writes on, which is then sealed away,
the necklace is put on, and it is not taken off. Children and some adults wear what appears to
be a string around their bellies to ward off evil. the number 9 is very revered, so important
things use that number or add up to that number. For example, if you pray and are granted what
you asked for, you sometimes go to the temple and SMASH open 108 COCONUTS to
give, because 1+0+8 = 9!!! We saw a
woman smashing coconuts and I was in awe!!
Let’s just say, there was nothing that dramatic in the Midwestern church
that I grew up attending!
 |
One morning in Varkala, we turned a corner and were greeted by this ELEPHANT getting her morning BATH!
She belongs to the Janardhanaswami Temple. Yes, some temples own ELEPHANTS.
|
It seemed funny to me
(again, I was a complete outsider taking a peek in, so I am not trying to be judgmental
here) that there was a PRICE LIST in some temples. Many of the rituals require a small payment –
a priest feeding an infant their first solid food, a marriage, in one temple
our guide paid a musician to sing us a song!!
(Side note: the instrument the
guy used had ONE STRING on it, and though the guide told him our names, we
never once heard “David” or “Susan” in his melody… Also, after the guide paid him, the guy
appeared to balk and ask for more money…
We were giggling later, imaging what the conversation must have been (if
we had been able to understand it): Musician: “Yo, dude, I sang them a WHOLE
SONG under this Barbie tree! I mean
really, you are gonna give me 5 rupees for that???” Guide: “I told you their NAMES, man, and you
didn’t even include them. C’mon, that
instrument only has ONE STRING and you just sort of yammered on. 5 rupees is more than you deserve. Let’s not make a scene in front of these
tourists, alright???”.
 |
| The man who serenaded us |
 |
The tree at the temple decorated in Barbies... Lots and lots of BARBIES.
We didn't fully understand this one, it was something to do with fertility.
|
We also got to go
inside the Lotus Bahai Temple in Delhi. It
was beautiful!! It is a huge, open space
and, though full of visitors, completely SILENT. Well, it is supposed to be completely silent,
but 2 birds had decided to come in and sing up a storm. The acoustics in that big space were PERFECT
for those bird songs – it was as if nature wrote hymns and they were belting
them out.
One of our guides,
Gary (you may remember him from the BIG REVEAL at the Taj Mahal!) was
Sikh. I do not know much about that
religion, but I know from what Gary told us that Sikhs are warriors. They keep their hair and facial hair unshorn,
wear a turban, and carry a kirpan – which is a small SWORD! (Though Gary told us that, as a tour guide,
he enters places where weapons are not allowed so while working does not carry
his.) One thing I loved was when Gary
was having an argument with an old man at one of the forts we visited. Gary, the Sikh, and the old man in charge of
the place, a Muslim. They were arguing
over Gary being charged a fee he should not have been, and the old man was sticking
to his guns. Gary (in Hindi) fired back
something like, “OK, fine then, if you want to charge me that fee, you can
bloody well hand carry my receipt for it out here to me, then walk around in
this scorching sun with me and these tourists!!”. The argument continued (in Hindi), UNTIL the
old man told Gary that it was his time for PRAYER, and if he indeed followed us
around like Gary was requiring, he would miss his prayers. Well, that stopped the argument right then
and there. Gary would not interfere with
the old man’s religion. It was a
beautiful moment.
There are also many
Muslim people in India. You can hear the
“call to prayer” often from different mosques, and the sound is
entrancing. Muslim attire is, of course,
different than that of the Hindus. Many Muslim
women keep their heads covered, and even while swimming some of the women kept their
bodies covered. We were so honored (and
delighted!) when a Muslim family invited us to join them in a game of “water
soccer” in the rooftop hotel pool in Mumbai.
It was a blast! Another Muslim
family swam with us in Varkala and they were adorable. Only the daughter, around age 12, spoke
English. She was studying in an
international school where her courses were all taught in English, so she was
quite fluent. The problem was, she
talked very FAST, so with the speed and her accent, even though she was
speaking “our language” we still had to say, “HUH?” a lot. J
 |
Me in my borrowed garb - had to cover up to go into a mosque.
My outfit was a bit LARGE for me....
|
 |
| Man resting inside the Might of Islam Mosque (Delhi) |
 |
Religious sites always have piles of SHOES outside them, since
you have to take your shoes off to go inside
|
 |
| Woman at Might of Islam Mosque |
I want to mention
one more thing here about religion. Have
you heard of Amma, the “hugging saint”? I
had, and when we ended up traveling to the south of India, we knew we would be
near her Ashram. I looked online before
we left for vacation and from what I saw it would take HOURS to get to actually
see Amma, the site said that people wait in line ALL NIGHT LONG to get a “token”
to get a hug from her. Well, we didn’t
have that much time, so I had resigned myself to a “drive by hug of David in
front of Amma’s Ashram”. However, little
did I know that more was in store for me…
Remember the couple I wrote about who invited us into their home, served
us tea, and gave us black pepper?? Well,
they are Amma devotees and when I was shown their prayer room, I saw a huge
portrait of Amma. They were so pleased
that I knew of her and set about making plans with our driver for us to work actual,
real life AMMA HUGS into our schedule!
And wouldn’t you know it, everything worked out. It is amazing really – Amma is frequently on
tour in other countries, and even when she is in town she does not see the
public and have a “darshan” (meeting of the people and hugging) every day. But the ONE DAY we were in town near her
ashram, she was holding a darshan, so off we went!! I mean, how often does the timing work out
that well, right??
 |
Shhhh! No photos are allowed in Amma's Ashram. This is our only one, and it was
taken with our camera IN OUR BACKPACK. We did not mean to be sacrilegious,
but we NEEDED a photo of this occasion. This was during our long wait.
|
Our driver, Prabeesh,
was so thrilled to be able to take us to Amma’s. He had been to see her one other time and is
a believer. So the three of us journeyed
to the ashram, got ourselves a token, and waited around 3 hours to get our
HUGS! During the wait, we watched other
people line up and get their hugs and listened to chanted songs (one of which
had 1,008 verses extolling Amma’s virtues, because, again, 1+0+0+8 = 9, the
revered number!!). I won’t go into
detail here (this entry is long enough!) but we left with our hugs, little bags
of scented material (some of which Amma applied to our foreheads), Amma
candies, and a tiny Amma token and plastic red Amma ring I bought at the gift
shop. J
 |
Our stuff from Amma's. I WISH you could smell the little tan colored
packet - it contains what she put on our forehead and smells wonderful.
|
The thing about
religion in India is – the different religions seem to GET ALONG. They seem to coexist peacefully. Yes, I know that is not always the case, but from
what I experienced, individual religions were very RESPECTED. Indians can tell at a glance what someone else’s
religion is. The way the person is
dressed, how their forehead markings are, etc are all signs to which religion
they practice. Religion is not something
kept quiet in India – it is pervasive in the entire culture. The majority of the country does not eat beef
(save for Kerala, the state in the south we visited). The “no beef” is because some of the
religions, but not ALL, believe that cows are sacred. Even POLITICS in India is religious. I asked about some of the logos used by the
parties in the recent elections, and at least 2 of them were related to religion
(though the guide told us that “technically” religion and politics are separate,
in actuality they are very much combined)!
We thought we were
heading to India to see the sights – the Taj Mahal, the tigers, etc. We hadn’t foreseen we would also see the
RELIGIONS – the gods, the coconuts, the chants, the incense… I am grateful for the opportunity to peek
into another world. I never imagined
that this “girl” from the heartland of America would land smack dab in the
middle of an ashram being hugged, or gazing in awe at devoted men dressed in
dhotis and no shirts entering the sacred part of a temple. Color me happy. I have an extra thing to say “thanks” for in
my daily prayers now.
 |
| More amazing art from the Varkala Temple |
 |
| Look!! 3 heads, and he/she is doing the ASL sign for the number 3! |
For more about Amma,
see this site: http://amma.org/
 |
BONUS photo! Here is a little friend I met at the Sivagiri Mutt in Varkala. You can tell we
are at a religious place because we are barefoot (which is rare for me if I am not on a beach).
His mom wanted him to get his photo with the "exotic white woman". :)
|
Comments