An Indian railway station is like a mini town. Rural people show up at the station early and do their shopping in the local markets before departing. Many others camp on the platform in anticipation of a delayed train. Police battalions flock in corners ready to be deployed in emergency. Food vendors operate round the clock. Stalls with books, periodicals and newspapers attract attention. The train officials remain sympathetic to human condition. One could sit on a platform and ruminate about the life in the country. Many north Indian towns however are like wounded men in patches and bandages. One can hardly guess the glory of human living by seeing the current condition. The earlier name of the city Allahabad was Prayag, a venerable place of sanctity because of the confluence of two mighty rivers. The meeting point that includes a third underwater stream Saraswati is called Sangam, meaning "union". The mix of three waters has traditionally been a refuge to the Indian belief system. Pock marks remain after the wounds heal, so is the law of nature. The Islamists came to the town in twelfth century and started destroying its monuments. It was religious dogmatism at its extreme. Many locals converted their faith in order to escape being killed. The process continued for five hundred years. There are areas of Islamic population in the city who could be the cousins of the local Hindu population. Muslims were protected under the Islamic rule. Hindus despised them. Muslims created Pakistan, but more people stayed in India. There is latent anger on both sides. Hindus have become more militant and protective in time. Some of them have become total fanatics and engage in house burning and killing. India declared peace in the world. The local peace is destroyed. Rarely one feels the majesty of the old scholarship where literature, arts, philosophy and music flourished. The British were a bit more tolerant to religious needs. Through such patronage the Hindu superstitions have increased. The British made the Brahmins as a protected class. The local Brahmins took full advantage of such privilege. The Vedas through their empirical wisdom had divided the human race into four groups based on aptitude. A priest was called a Brahmana, because he was expected to have studied the cosmology of the universe and was conversant with the literature. He was supposed to have mastered the knowledge of Brahman, the all-pervasive Creator. The royals were called Kshatriya, since they protected the Kshit, the "land". All the dare-devils and the rulers in the world would go under the Kshatriya classification. Then there was the third class of Vaishya, who would create Vesha "appearance" through agriculture, diary and trade. Finally the manual workers everywhere were lumped into a fourth class called Shudra, with a complicated etymology meaning one who is cursed by not being endowed with a good mental faculty. While this was a dynamic classification, it degraded into a birth classification where the higher classes protected their groups. Some of the best talents in India however originated from the Shudra class. A worker knew life! My task of ritual immersion would be conducted by a person who could be Brahmin (Brahmana) by birth but might have little to do with scholarship or cosmology. The aptitude became a caste through census. The Hindu faith has deteriorated and is now confined to its relics. The early rituals were sacrifices and the priests officiated to make sure that the ritual was conducted properly. Sacrifice for the welfare of the family or relief from stress was done to create a mental power of determination and steadfastness. Gods help if one is sincere in the quest! A well trained and scholarly priest was a medium.
We will be going to a monastery called Bharat Sevashrama Sangha, an organization founded about a hundred years ago by a young monk from current Bangladesh. Started as a volunteer organization to help out the poor and the distressed, the organization now serves the pilgrims traveling to perform rituals in holy places. Such organizations are created to help protect the pilgrims from the abuse and the torment by the modern generation priests who have little to with the Creator or protecting the philosophical integrity.
Torment by the priests is the basis of the survival of organized religion. The priests have to first declare what is the right ritual in an incident and then draw resources from the "victims" in the name of religion. In the earlier India, there was a process of giving gifts to the priests, because the priest by definition had no possessions and lived on what was given. The fees of religious practice were formalized by the post-Christ church leaders and the idea has caught on. Some priests dress and behave as kings in their conduct towards the masses. Islamic priests wield more power. Such faking has entered the Hindu faith in a large fashion leading to atrocious conduct by the priests against the persons in distress. The women are most vulnerable and are most oppressed.
Dr. Laxmicharan spoke to the resident monk at the monastery and arranged for our travel to the river. The monk told us that different priests at the river have jurisdiction for pilgrims from different areas. He advised where we would find the priest who would serve my ancestral area. The location of birth has astrological significance and the priest could tailor the ritual keeping the location of birth in consideration. The process did not have any logic, but I complied.
The taxi entered the sand bed in the river. Half way through there were temporary sheds. One of the sheds belonged to my assigned priest. Dr Laxmicharan paid him the prescribed frees. I was asked if I should get my hair shaved. To give one's hair as a sacrifice is an old custom. I declined. The barber in charge then shaved my facial hairs and made me "ready" for the ritual. Three other brothers had meanwhile appeared for service with the priest. They had traveled from Orissa also. Their wives were with them. These three brothers had their heads shaved as commanded by the priest.
We all sat on the ground in a row. The priest sat on a cot in front. He chanted some common Sanskrit ritual stanzas and then asked us to create hand movements using water, flower or rice. He knew that he was in charge. There would be no questions or no negotiation. More obediently one followed, better was the path of the deceased. Though mechanical, it gave me an opportunity to remember my father's presence. The brothers were being observed by their wives. They would repeat their moves possibly out of nervousness. My companions were liberal on me.
The priest declared that we satisfactorily completed our ritual. He was more kind than I anticipated. By doing the ritual through a batch of people he was overcoming the pressure of his anticipated compensation. It was like a single physician attending multiple tables on surgery. But here the errors have no repercussion. A ritual is done as a completion of an earthly task. The sincerity of the person in the ritual matters and not that of the priest! The patient performs the surgery as guided.
I am attaching a few pictures from the ritual. Faith has been helpful to me in my life. When we navigate in strange places with unknown settings, we need reinforcement through faith. I have also interacted with various priests at different times and they have been trusted friends for the rest of my life. I myself have conducted rituals for others in need. Faith is a part of human journey to the unknown. Faith hardens human determination and produces hope. After completing the ritual we proceeded for the immersion of the ashes in the river.
