There are so many layers of activity in India all the time, and at festival times it is even more... children enjoying an extra day off from school, little girls riding around on their fathers shoulders, young boys and grown men flying purple kites, women bathing in the ganga at the woemnen's bathing ghat, men of all ages running around drying off in their underwear and cloth wraps at all the other ghats, western hippie tourists playing saxaphones or orgaonizing drum circles or advertising art exhibitions; naga babas, aghori babas, yogis, monks, danda swamis, Brahmin preists and pujaris perpfomring the religious and spiritual rites of their lineages as many before them have done for thousands of years. Hindus and yogis fast all day and fire, insence, bang (hashish), coconuts, sweets, and the nectars of the Indian traditions - milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, honey, and ganga water are everywhere being consumed by the senses and used in ceremony in honor of Shivaratri.
We spent 5 intense hours in a very small temple room at the top of a long flight of steps up from the river... it was like being in a space ship!
Late at night, I looked down from the veranda of our guest house to see a brand new little temple surrounded on all sides. In classical Indian form, on one side of the temple a Brahmin priest was giving blessings while on the other side young men and small boys were blasting club-beat Hindi music from a boom box and dancing. All of this is going on simultaneously and as part of the same celebration. And somehow, it all fits together.
No comments:
Post a Comment