Maha Shivaratri si the biggest Hindu festival for Shiva. For 3-5 days, Hindus gather around their temples to hold unending prayers, food sharing, songs and dancing. I had an exhilirating time with Liz Weber, from Boston, my assigned roommate in the conference. A couple of days before the festival, we went to Pashupatinath Temple to witness Hindu burials. The term "Public Witness" takes on a new meaning when one attends the public grieving from ancient traditions here. People crying and wailing in public, the ritual splashing of water on the body along the river banks, the audience of strangers that stand and watch, the adorning of the body after cleansing, the march from one part of the banks to the next where the body will be burned on the pyre, the explosion of skull, the silent watching of the burning --- all this was holy. After partaking in one burial, Liz and I decided to climb the flight of stairs that leads to the exit. In Nepal, like in India, animals run loose unhurt because of their belief in Karma. Stray dogs, cows, monkeys, rats, and birds are some of the more common you will see on the streets and temples.
As we alighted, Liz and I were followed by 2 bulls. They were young and had new horns just growing which were pretty cute to look at. I felt accompanied. And maybe, so did Liz. As we paused along the way up, the bulls would also pause. And when they'd pause, we would wait for them. Until it felt like there was a magical bond between us. "Why run with the bulls when you can walk with them?" I said to Liz.
And there it hit me. In Hinduism, they have very little propensity to demonize energies. "Do you know how many gods we have?" said one guide who wanted to offer us his services. "I don't know.. a few thousands?" I attempted to answer in jest. My best friend and business partner Eshan Esu is a Hindu from Darjeeling and he's told me that the term "33 million" was more like a figure of speech rather than a fact. "Thirty-three million!" the guide retorted. It is his truth. But no demons? There is none.
And there we were with the bulls demonized by the West --- gentle creatures of the East, escorting our strangeness as if saying, "These two are with us." As if I myself had to say, "These two bulls are with us, too." And so much of what we know about the world has been "occupied" by lenses of those who speak for us, who think they know us better that we forget who we really are.
In the Maori tradition, stories about gods are used to heal. You will be told about a god that has your own "problems", condundrums and difficulties. And so I wondered what if, in our "Time for All Ages", the way we relate stories to the young, we would start with --- instead of "once there was a child", we could say, "once there was a god." You'll find more stuff about Maori storytelling as therapy here.
So there we were --- Liz and I -- walking with gods. God energy is everywhere --- one of the beliefs of Hinduism. Mostly humans see them in those that make us feel attended to, minded, seen. There is a bull god in Hinduism named Nandi, which means to flourish or to appear. I'd like to believe that it was a blessing. Because it was. The two bulls reminded me of Nandi energy, teacher of wisdom. I hope there's wisdom in this writing.
Here's an entry from Wikipedia:
Where bulls are treated as gods, they become gods. Where we treat people as hungry beasts as we do treat our corporate bosses and heads of capitalistic pantheons, they become beasts. Where we see ourselves as bad eggs, we will be those. There is prophetic work in our narratives and we need to be mindful of how our stories create our reality for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment