A Song for the Lord of the Hills

Pardaisi #52

People have been persecuted and prosecuted in Pakistan for making fun of beards. I don`t know if that is any less hateful than Jay`s mentioning that fact on Chowk.

# 4 Jay
quoting ``...beard being a religious symbol.``

Geez......thanks......you must think everyone at Chowk is an idiot.

You continue to amaze me how you can function with so much hate.

veeresh
``I think the Yesudas/Guruvayoor thing was sorted out, if I recall.``

Alas, not so :(.
There is an April 2004 online chat transcript of Yesudas, in which someone asked him about it and he replied ``You said Guruvayurappan`s blessings are there always, then why enter the temple and give trouble to others?``.

Hi Sadna - here is what happened when I went to a temple beyond Shimla, along the Sutlej, years ago. My co-driver then in rallying was a Muslim, visibly one, and this temple at Sarahan claims to be as old as the hills. Well, to cut a long story short, we cleaned up, went in, had darshan, (the sanctum sanctotum at this temple, in a departure from the usual) is on the top floor . . .) and on the way down were asked to meet the Head Priest so my buddy says uh-oh this is it . . . so when we go in, my buddy pre-empts matters by apologising and the Head Priest says (a) I wanted to take a ride in your loud/noisy cars and (b) his definition of a Hindu being any good person coming to His abode who accepts religion as a decentralised system with no formal institutional controls.

I think the Yesudas/Guruvayoor thing was sorted out, if I recall. Cross religion pilgrimages are the order of the day . . .

If I remember right, many years ago when Yesudas the famous singer and his wife tried and didnot succeed in having children, finally he went on the Sabrimala pilgrimage. After the pilgrimage, they did have a child and then another, but the Catholic church had gotten offended and initially refused to baptise them.

On this side, his beautifully-sung Ayyappa hymns and other Hindu religious music can be heard far and wide, but being a nonHindu, he is not allowed to visit the Guruvayoor temple. It is really strange that though his hymns are played on temple loudspeakers all over the place, he cannot actually visit the one temple that he does wish to visit. This is such a sad thing, can someone pl. tell me this isn`t so?

Thank you Jang--I like your irreverence, you must be all of nineteen!-- for your testimonial, and thank you Satyamvada for your scripture lesson. I never claimed Abdul and Salma were exceptional, I only thought it made a nice story. They were certainly not the first Muslims I set eyes on--I lived in Hyderabad for ten years. I am no wide-eyed schoolboy idealist, either, thinking `sappy` thoughts and dreaming soulful dreams of atma and paramatma locked in some cosmic embrace, to take the jing out of Jang`s sting, to coin a phrase. God be with you all, whatever your denomination or dogma, and now let me retire graciously from this debate to nowhere.
Ram

How do I explain again and again and AGAIN to people that one socially evolved and derived method of understanding communal harmony at religious centres is to check out how the benefits of expenditure by the pilgrim trade are spread across religions?

Or have people never used Muslim porters for Amarnath and Vaishno Devi? Or Hindu ``helpers`` at Ajmer? Or, better still, head for Karim`s at Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi (this one is a big favourite with the Urmilla Matondkar worshippers from the Pakistani media, by the way . . .) and check out who controls the Shiv-Shamboo there?

A little bit oif lust, therefore, is nothing.

Thanks, Ramgowri, and now you know!! Go forth with Jang, but go to the gym first!!

Ramgowri....

Chill out....what jang and veeresh said are no big deal.

Also, what the characters in your story did is nothing exceptional. They
just did what many people in India have done for thousands of years. It is
just that people like you who have been trained by the indian media to think
that this is something great.

``Abdul and ``Salma`` are ``Indians`` that is why they did what they did.
If they had contact with the real ``Islam`` - then they would behave like the Pakis
,become fanatics and look towards Arabia for sustenance.

If you are agnostic - I suggest that you read more about the following philosophies
- Jaina and Bouddha (both are atheistic)
- Advaita (monism - some dvaiti`s also call advaitins as ``buddhists in disguise``
though they are vaidikas)

#42 by ramgowri

OK ramgowri

This was a truely touching story of how atma meets paramatma, and how the true spiritual thirst tansceds religious boundaries. With more Abduls and Salmas, and ramgowris to report about them, the future is bright and peaceful.

Happy, or should i make it more sappy?

Touche! Veereshji, I enjoyed reading your Train to Pakistan so much. In fact, it was only after I read you in Outlook that I came to know of Chowk. Cheers.
Ram

Ramgowri 42, Sir, I appreciate your sentiments. Having said that, however, and having to some extent investigated decades ago the kind of sexual (and other) shenahigans going on in all places of religion, I would think that as a peaceful, innocent byestander, I was entitled to some amount of ribaldry.

And I have not even started as yet on the various House of Religion where people believe miracles occur towards conception.

In any case, would anybody deny the role of lust, be it in the fertility chants from almost all major religious texts or from a variety of genres, again, across all religions?

All my life I have remained an agnostic, but the faith of humble believers—as different from the zeal of fanatics—never fails to move me. My story is about people who can rise above their own individual faith to embrace that of their fellow. ‘Abdul’ and ‘Salma’ are devout Muslims who find beauty in some Hindu rituals and places of worship, even solace, thanks perhaps to where they come from. The priest who performs the archanai for them is equally liberal in outlook, and I wrote of them because their exceptional conduct gives us hope. As some other ‘interactors’ point out, there are many instances in Indian life of easy intermingling, such as the contribution Muslim musicians have made to Indian classical music, the camaraderie between Hindu and Muslim sportspersons and so on. It so happened that this particular episode touched a chord in me. What surprises me is the kind of reaction it has evoked in some of our ‘interactors’. I am all for humour, even of the black variety if the situation demands, but amazed that the story has generated ribald responses on pot-bellied priests and shaven women in Kanjivarams competing with topless men for the lustful looks of voyeurs out for a good time.

My Dear ganjee-less Jang-ji,
Before you off with your veshti,

Do visit the gym,
And get back in trim,

Or you will be snooked by the Pandit ji!!

Seriously, the pot bellied dudes are not your competition. Have you seen the new-age swamis and their yoga controlled breathing enhanced physiques?

So, off to Talwakars for you, chop chop. And do shave.

jang
//..``is it ok to look lustfully at visiting nice looking devotees``? ...//

I have wondered about that question too. Especially when I find myself bowing to Lord Krishna. Wasn`t that guy the the most colorful playboy of all times? I mean - if he can do all those good things he did ( like watching babes bathing nude in Yamuna ) and still be worshipped - why can`t I? After all, I am his devotee, his follower - right???

It`s confusing!!

#37 by veeresh

arrright then, off with ganjee next time..maybe have to be ganja as well? but cant compete with priests with their sumo-size bellies. marvelous how they use the sacred thread to scratch their back.

boy, that is some sight at tirupati. see these women in fanciest of kanchivurum silks who are ABSOLUTELY CLEAN_SHAVEN BALD, with chandan and haldi on their heads!

my visits to some remote north indian temples was too close for comfort to humanity.

i remember being trapped in the manikaran temple (near Manali) once with some yatris due to snowfall. boy, the channa diet the yatris eat is not the most pleasant in close proximity. and the ganja in manikaran has little to do with lack of hair.

Sorry for post#36. Got posted on this board by mistake.