The Fate of Rocky Hills/Outcrops All Over India
Popular uprisings in India – seminar and exhibit
Ganesha: the Auspicious…the Beginning
The book, Ganesha: the Auspicious…the Beginning, written by Shakunthala Jagannathan, who passed away in 2000, and her daughter, Dr. Nanditha Krishna, is about the elephant-headed God, Ganesha, who is beloved by all Hindus.
In general, a prayer to Ganesha preceeds all occasions of Hindu worship and all events of any importance, such as the dedication of a building or a new business.
Ganesha is jovial, kind, and good-natured – he brings success and good fortune to all endeavors. Like the elephant who makes a way through the dense jungle so that other animals can follow, Ganesha overcomes all obstacles, he finds a way where there seems to be no possible way. He is the very essence of positivity and possibility.
One of the sects of Hinduism, the Ganapatya sect, worships Ganesha as the ultimate form of God, as Brahman, who is the ultimate reality, as the One Truth, who is Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva – the One from whom the entire universe was born.
Because, with the proportions of an elephant, he is very big, he contains within him the entire cosmos and all that exists.
A more widely held perspective within Hinduism, however, places the triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva as being the three primary Gods who were present at the beginning, with Brahma having been given the task of creating the universe. From this viewpoint, Ganesha is the son of Shiva and his consort, Parvati.
There is no conflict though between these two views. Hinduism has a way of reconciling and including many divergent ways of seeing things. It is rather like the old parable of nine blind men describing the elephant – one who has felt the elephant’s legs says he is like four pillars, one who has felt the trunk says he is long and tubular, one who has felt only the tusks says he is sharp, curved, and pointed, and so on. No one is right or wrong – all are describing reality as they perceive it. Since reality is vast and infinite beyond our imagining, all the different stories that are part of the Hindu tradition serve as ways to add to one’s understanding.
Ganesha is the sacred syllable Om, the first sound and the first word, from which all created things spring forth. Ganesha appears at dawn, in joy, dancing in the first light. The mystic syllable Om encompasses the entire universe, extending beyond the boundaries of time and space, and this is the reason it is spoken at the beginning and end of meditation or prayer.
The book, Ganesha: The Auspicious…The Beginning is a profound and delightful book, which gives one an insight into the nature of this wonderful God, Ganesha, who brings peace, calm, knowledge, freedom from burdens, and success – who is at once infinitely complex and beautifully simple.
Image: “This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.” From a painting done around 1800 by an unknown artist. / Wikimedia Commons / “The five prime deities of Smartas in a Ganesha-centric Panchayatana: Ganesha (centre) with Shiva (top left), Devi or Durga (top right), Vishnu (bottom left) and Surya (bottom right).”
To see Ganesha: The Auspicisous…the Beginning on Amazon, click here.
© Sharon St Joan, 2014
Angkor – An untold story
Narayana, child of the sea
He who went upon the waves
Of the waters before the snows fell,
Markandeya, walking, saw him then,
Narayana, Creator of stars and the glimmering dew
Of dawn,
Long
Before the worlds were made,
Before the fish could glide,
Gold and blue,
Along the glade of coral reef,
Deep in the mists,
Narayana upon the green leaf,
Floated upon the sacred song,
Upon the buoyant pipal tree,
Where has he gone,
And when,
And how to tell?
Yet he is there even now, on the open sea,
Out past the rock-cut caves,
Beyond the bear-enchanted forests,
Of the farthest, hawk-lit hill,
Where the bell tolls still,
On the echoing tide,
Narayana, child of the sea,
He is there.
Poem: © Sharon St Joan, December 2014
Photo: © Catolla | Dreamstime.com
Suzanne Cordrey: Following the call of the wild, part two
Suzanne Cordrey: Following the call of the wild, part one
After a while
Tall,
To the sun
And the moon they rise,
Pillars
That hold up the land
Of the stars,
In the early morning
Of time.
Where the chime
Of butterflies
Rings in the mist
Of clouds,
Where the horses of the wind climb
Archaic hills, peace settles,
Free from the shrouds
Of thought bewildered.
When the grinding wheels
Of the rattling cars,
The careening cart,
Of the manic race of beings that never stops
Have stopped, unspinned,
And fallen down
From the lofty wall,
Their memory lies
Quiet,
Dimming,
In the cheerful company
Of ghosts,
In the sooted
Shambles of empires
Cast
Under the snapping heels
Of fate.
Then
The coyotes
And the ever-knowing raven
Will run again
In gladness,
Across the red rock sand.
The wild hills, free now,
As the lilies
Of eternity
Who bow
In the wandering wind
By the bright
And undiscovered
Sea.
After the horns
Of many winters
Have fallen silent,
The husk
Of time
Discarded,
The aspiring rose will lift
Her head again
Among the rocks, resilient,
In the ice-enchanted
Spring.
The wind will sing.
Stones
Will shine, blessed in the twinkling
Emptiness
Of night.
The crow
Hops
In black
Clouds that inhabit
A sky of joy;
Coyotes laugh last
In the dance of the dusk,
And the ancient,
Earlier folk
Walk
To take back
The sacred mountain
Stolen
So long ago,
Now that the age of the unholy
Will be ended and done,
Gone
On the smoke
Of the fleeing mist.
Under a delicate crown
Of forest
Leaves, mice play
Among their catch,
The silver
Trinkets of the dead,
And talk
A while of feats of yore.
Herons glimmer,
One-footed,
On the green, tree-
Shouldered river.
Such an ill wind
That blew
Into the bones
Of the soul
Of men,
And stayed, corroding
The core
Of history,
Such a grim, unseemly game,
Like thorns
Lodged in the heart,
But when the scales fall
Away,
One by one by one,
Then
In the end there are only
The plain, rain-lit,
And the rose that flowers anew,
The innocent petals
Of nevermore,
And the farmer’s boy
Who whistles
In the strawberry patch,
By the lop-sided shack,
Where the corn stalks grow,
His blue
Hat adrift
On his head,
In the town
With no name,
Where the raven rules, with the snow-
Winged geese.
The sun holds the empty bowl,
Blessed be his ashen fires.
Agni, the one
Who returns
All
Back to the beginning.
Set the burning
Lanterns
Out and wait
In peace,
From within the rock and mist
To hear a killdeer call,
To sail away
To a far and luminous shore,
Known so well from long before,
On the flaming ships of dawn.
© Sharon St Joan, 2014
Photo: © Colin Young | Dreamstime.com
Gadhimai and heroic efforts to stop it
By Dr. Nanditha Krishna
The Gadhimai animal sacrifice is a deeply disturbing event, and this account contains disturbing descriptions of suffering animals and horrible surroundings. The courageous actions and presence of the many people who went there to protest the sacrifice, as well as the efforts of the Supreme Court of India and Indian government agencies, were not able to stop the sacrifice, but have resulted in saving the lives of thousands of animals, and in laying the groundwork for hopefully preventing the next Gadhimai event from taking place. — The Editor
It is a hot dusty road to the temple of goddess Gadhimai in Bara district of Nepal. We slowly leave behind the few semblances of civilization as we crawl along a dirt track to an area of soul-wrenching poverty. Muzaffarpur in Bihar is the last civilized outpost as we drive from Patna to Roxhaul in India, across the border to Birgunj in Nepal and later to Gadhimai. Bihari villagers are dragging little male buffalo calves – the unwanted waste of the dairy industry – and goats, or carrying lambs in their arms, all to be sacrificed to Gadhimai. I spend a night at the RS Hotel in Roxhaul, where Dawn William and volunteers of the Blue Cross of India have been camping every night, while they fan out 100 kms east and west of Roxhaul from 4 am every day to stop the smuggling of animals across the border.
Next day I shift to Hotel Makalu at Birgang, where an ad film glorifying Gadhimai and the slaughter is broadcast round-the-clock. It shows people saying how happy they are to perform the sacrifice. Apparently the goddess appeared in the dream of the (present) priest’s ancestor and freed him from his captivity in jail. In return, she asked for a “nar-bali” or sacrifice of 5 men. He sacrificed 5 animals instead: rat, pigeon, chicken, goat and buffalo, and she was appeased. Now he kills one of each and cuts his finger slightly, to give human blood, and leaves the rest to his minions because “his arm aches after all the cutting”!
As we approach Gadhimai, the atmosphere changes. There is a mela going on, a one month celebration before the ritual slaughter. Along with the giant wheel and motor car stunts, we go back 500 years: a child with a monster’s head and deformed body exhibited for viewing and collecting money; snake charmers; scorpions for sale (as an aphrodisiac). The path is strewn with writhing lepers. I have not seen such sights since I was a child. There are huge baskets stuffed with pigeons for sale. Little male calves and goats, barely able to walk, are dragged to their death. One little calf, who has not yet been weaned, suckles the tassels of my companion’s shawl till he is roughly pulled away. The place is filthy: there are no toilets and the air stinks of faeces. In between, there are shops selling cheap Chinese goods – artificial jewellery, beads and plastic toys. A fat woman is selling reluctant goats and sheep, pulling them away from their bleating lambs. One has to be a monster to remain unaffected.
There is a large arena, like a stadium, where the buffalo calves are thrown in to await their death. There is a stack of hay and some water, but these animals are still suckling babes. They cannot eat the hay. But somebody’s conscience is assuaged: the animals are fed!
The temple is crowded, but I sit beside the priest whom I met in Jaipur when I tried – in vain – to convince him to stop the sacrifice. “Look at the crowds”, he says “will they let me stop?” He is right. They are all excited and revved up at the thought of the slaughter to come. It is a malaise that runs deep. The crowd is already about 200,000 strong, and the highlight – the slaughter – has not yet begun. The visitors are Nepalese and Biharis – no difference between the two who speak Bhojpuri and share the sacrifice.
The Gadhimai sacrifice is big business. The contractor has paid Rs. 1.6 crores to the committee, of which the priest receives Rs. 16 lakhs. The rest is divided between the trustees, except the secretary who is the cousin of the contractor and gets a large share. In return the contractor gets everything: the hundi offerings (of money, gold, etc.), buffalo skins, flesh (to be sold as meat), etc. To slaughter one buffalo costs Rs. 1600, which is paid to the contractor. There are cold storage trucks waiting to transport the flesh to China for food. The skins come to China and India for footwear and handbags. There are no takers for the goat flesh, which the villagers take home to cook and eat.
Some of the visitors look into the arena. “Too few animals,” says one. “Is saal achchaa nahin hai”! Unfortunately, Nepalese Hinduism is full of animal sacrifice and the people are desensitized. After a fruitless discussion with the priest, I prepare to leave. The only hope is that he agrees to work with us after the sacrifice to see what can be done 5 years hence. He is angry with Bharat sarkar for stopping the entry of animals into Nepal (as per the ruling of the Supreme Court of India). But he knows the world is angry. This is not Hinduism, which taught the world ahimsa paramo dharmah.
On Thursday is the “kshama pooja”, when they ask for forgiveness from the animals slaughtered and to be slaughtered. So they know it is wrong. About 4,ooo buffaloes and buffalo calves and innumerable goats and pigeons were slaughtered on Friday. Today’s count is about 3,500. The temple committee had assured at least 10,000 buffaloes to the contractor, to whom they have had to apologize for the low count. The Dalit committee, which had earlier boycotted the consumption of meat, have not allowed the contractors to remove the carcasses, so they are rotting in the arena. The committee has lost face. While the activists assembled at Gadhimai could not stop the slaughter, they have been able to reduce the numbers, thanks to a pro-active Indian Supreme Court and Home Ministry. And the lower number of animals will result in a financial loss for the contractor. So there is hope for the future.
Photos: Courtesy of Blue Cross of India
To visit the website of Humane Society International – India, click here.
To visit the website of Blue Cross of India, click here.