Those of you how know me well know that I’m not exactly “traditional” on matters religious. I guess that’s what you get when you send a boy to Baylor. I tread here lightly for fear that any observation will offend, but please remember, these are only observations about something that I know little of and understand even less.
The religions of India are pervasive as well as invasive. They hit you in the face by their omni-presence. They are everywhere and anywhere. From the Muslim call to prayer at 5:00 each morning to the amplified music announcing the day to the Hindu. The Sikhs are obvious by their turbans and beards, and the Krishna are annoying with their music. The Jains are not so obvious, but they influence the social and political structure even though they are a tiny minority. The Christians control Goa and most of the good private schools….those Jesuits have always been clever fellows. And the Zoroastians confuse and annoy everyone by their refusal to dispose of their dead.
There are religious festivals, weddings, burials, cremations, circumcisions, ceremonies, preachings, ashram rantings, and bomboozling of all stripes going on every day in every town and village. There is noise, dancing, prancing, swooning, drinking, singing, preaching, and a general hullaballo most of the time related to one religion or another. There are temples, shrines, mosques, cemeteries, mausoleums, sanctuaries, ashrams, and secret enclaves in which a small part of this takes place. The larger theatre of activity is all around you….everywhere.
Eight hundred million Hindus and two hundred million Muslims cast a long, but not the only religious shadow in India. The Parsis are known as clever businessmen and accumulate wealth the way Esmelda collects shoes. The Sikhs are clever politically and control the long haul trucking industry. As I’ve already said, Catholics have a disproportionate influence on education. The Buddhists add a lot of color and have given the Dalai Lama and his stranger-than- fiction adherents to the world.
We went to the old town market this morning for a walkabout to soak in some local flavor. There were separate but connecting markets (read this as a bunch of adjacent small shops) for every conceivable need of daily life. One of the largest was the market for religious accoutrements. Shops selling small bits of this and that needed for various religious undertakings. And then, occasionally, we would stumble across a small shrine with pigs rooting about outside and an avatar of one of the gods inside.
I’ve spent some time researching the major religions, and I’ve talked to everyone that I’m comfortable talking to about the subject and concluded that the only enlightenment about the religions of India (and perhaps everywhere else) is the enlightenment that comes from knowing that I will never understand. What I do understand is that all of these religions seems to be trying to lay out the rules of the road. How to get by in a life which is complicated by the necessity to live every day or not.
The earliest evidence I’ve found of organized religion is from about 5500 BCE, and these early precursor religions have no identifiable founders. There’s was no prophet like Allah or Moses to give them a kick start. They seemed to start small and pick up momentum as time went on; often being abated by the ebb and flow of who was conquering who when. The religions of India are monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, and atheistic. That about covers the whole deal.
A little known fact for your edification…Buddha was a Hindu and didn’t like their rules so he created some of his own. Who does this sound like. Jesus was a Jew, right, and then what. I can’t really decide whether I’m attracted to the religions with one god, lots of gods or no god…..and the great thing, in India at least, is that it doesn’t really matter. They think that everyone’s got their own point of view and that’s all right. One result of studying religion in India is that it will make you believe whatever your believe more or less, but you will not be the same.
But there is some really strange coolaid in the water here. The Jains for example; you all know them of course. They’re the ones who not only won’t eat meat, they won’t eat any root veggies because it might cause them to kill a worm or two in the process of digging them out. They believe all life is sacred and equal,. OK, I get that, but don’t make me wear a mask so I won’t inhale a gnat.
Another of my favorites are the Zoroasthans who are right up their with “unusual” beliefs. They’ve recently funded an effort to bring back from the verge of extinction the White Backed Vulture. Why? Because if they’re lucky, or if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds in life, they will soar into lightness on the wings of this vulture….who is now almost extinct because of some chemical we use to feed cows.
At the bottom line I’m a “different strokes for different folks” kind of guy, and; hence, I fit in really well here. One of the pieces I read on Hindu said, “we are open to new revelations”. Think about it. A seven thousand year old religion saying that they are open to a new idea. It boggles…….
Enough on things religious…..well, one last thing. Today in the waiting lounge for our flight to Delhi a gringo of some sort walked in and sat near me. I gave him a hard once over to try to figure him out. He had on several layers of orange hued robes, no hair to speak of except a little curly queue at the base of his skull. He sported a big orange dot between and a little above his eyes. He carried a well thumbed book and a small leather sack which must have been procured at the same place as the one around his neck. He was thirtyish, but fading faster than normal, and had a far away look as he surveyed the room. His thumb nails were about two inches long and curled slightly inward. His feet were dirty but supported by some multi-strapped sandles. I couldn’t help but thing two thoughts: 1. My, wouldn’t his momma be proud of him, and 2. What do I really know?
That’s India for you.
