(Picture Archives from Joshita rawat)
I have been a bed time reader all along but certainly these last two months i have developed a voracious appetite, I finshed 80's fiction novel of James Clavell "whirlwind" which is on Iranian revolution and a mast reading, than in continuation iwent through Larry collins "The road to Armageddon" again on nuclear bomb building efforts of present day Iran.Last week in finished a text book and political history "The Dragon and the foreign devils" which is by Prof H G Gelber and talks about China 1100 B.C to the present and its relations with outside world, recommended reading.
This Good Friday i was going through road side book markets on Mehrauli- Guragon road and managed to lay hand on William Dalryemple's "Nine lives" which as the cover says is " In Search of the sacred in Modern India" , I managed to finish it same day, went through some chores on Saturday and today managing to recommend it to you guys, as one critic says about this ".... it is and artfully weaving together of travel, history and legend", as author puts it "...is conceived as a collection of linked non fiction shorth stories , with each life representing a different form of devotion or different religious path" since Alok you are already wirting of Mahaveerji travels would say you should go through the chapter "Nun's tale" for sure.
This might be the stories of people on the farthest extremes of religious ecstasy, but as i finished this book i was just reflecting that the Indian middle class that worker ant which has been backbone of this Indian shining story is one too steeped in religiosity and never lets off "Manu smirti" off its Radar scanner.Indian Child is born and welcomed with set rituals which become so repetitive over the years that most of the Indian middle aged householders can repeat mantras witn rote with never fully understanding the meaning. Daily Diya lighting in Puja corner is a must in every hindu household, visiting temples on tuesday, saturdays, avoiding Shaving on tuesdays, Thurdays..lines of Fasts.Appeasing the protector Vishnu with 'Satnarayan Katha' or the destroyer Shiva with monday fast it all comes naturally.
Move from 'Grahsth' to 'Van prasth' or coping with retirement blues is most easy.. " Om Jai Jagdish" is replaced with "Dhyan exercises"..new age and new line of Sudhanshuji, Asaram ji, Ravi Shankar ji, Goenka Ji make it very simple, these are gurus different from Elites of yesteryears who looked for foriegn clientle and when MNCs are realising the potential of burgeoning Indian middle class why would Gurus ignore such mass and let me tell all of these holymen are accesible propagate very simple ways to achieve salvation.
So For Mr william it should 30 cr lives which he should be writing about who are in throes of changes never ever happened to this country in last five hundered years and managing to get magical 8% GDP year on year of course with 33 cr deities(Devi Devtas) its all the more easy.
2 comments:
The painting reminds of the wood-cutter we met on the way to Butoli. Could he be Bhagwaan Krishna guiding us through?
Talking about religion and spiritulaity, India discovered the art of living centuries ago, but the simple message in now lost in the artificial complexity created by its glorification over time. Hopefully, we can bring it back into the mainstream in a simple-to-follow curriculum.
May be..u r rite! we were lost and just meandering about when he guided on correct path
Post a Comment