Sacred Places and Pilgrimage (paper review)

Sacred Places and Pilgrimage (Paper review) I. Karve, “On the Road: A Maharashtrian Pilgrimage,” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1., Nov., 1962, pp. 13-29 Some features of pilgrimage Pilgrims usually travel together, talk together, take their meals together, share many things, work together (cook food and wash the pots dishes), and sometimes share even accommodations. It’s time for informal chat about their personal lives, singing together, usually devotional songs: “The quality of compassion is to love. To love without thought of return, As a mother loves her child.” They share the expenses according their financial ability, “Some only pay contributions while others hire the truck or bus, buy the provisions, and make arrangements for the nightly halt.” It is an appropriate occasion for rich devotees who want to be generous. Labor division takes place according to ability and merit not a duty, “Shopping was done by the women, heavy loads for men, others could look after provisions.” Nobody feels s/he is stranger. Newcomers fit in very fast in no time. Individuals soon show their abilities and competencies. It’s time for flourishing and to show one’s talents. Pilgrims can listen or make religious discourses. “Talented and informants soon became “Guru” to everybody in the group.” Pilgrims share their information about the shrines, famous places of pilgrimage, and rituals, everybody is a tour guide. “Not all the pilgrims belong to the cult, some have their own wishes, accompany their friends, or enjoy like a tourist…” Pilgrims live a simple life without luxury, they get up early, “We ate things left over from the morning meal and spread our beds.” The hard work and cheerful attitude is common during the pilgrimage, “All complained about aching feet and legs, but hardly anybody protested about the work.” The elderly are being looked after lovingly. Others feed them and carry their things. The place and occasion is convenient to see real and genuine citizens, to see under the skin of community and the towns, not just business people as is common in the sightseeing tours. Nobody feels lonely and melting the ice of relation is easy. People are more open to conversation, “Social hierarchy is less rigid here. People from different castes were singing the same songs. I mingled with the women’s group…”. It is time for revitalise traditions, educating the young about them, and show the wisdom in them. Also indirect education is a great gain for every pilgrim, ““Well, you see it is like this,” she explained as one would to a child, She pitied my ignorance and explained…The fine poetry of five centuries recited daily. That poetry embodied a religion and a philosophy. People speaking many dialects sang the same verses and thus learned a standard language. Their learning was achieved in a massive dose but without pain or compulsion.” The pilgrimage in I. Kave’s words: …This communal living, this sharing, brought both joy and sorrow. So many unhappy and bereaved persons were walking the road to Bandharpour! On the way they opened their hearts and unburdened their sorrows to their travelling companions. They tried to get consolation and sympathy and hoped to gather the strength to bear their misfortunes. Some of the author’s deep insight and philosophical views Love: Easier said than acted! How is it possible? The sparrow which built its nest, which fed the little ones all day long – what did it expect in return? Can one order one’s love at all? Does love ask one’s permission before it appears? It weaves itself into the warp and woof of the heart without asking permission; the threads are pulled all the time this way and that, and may cut deep. Then men cry out with bleeding hearts, “Oh Go! Please rescue us.” not only the love of the mother, but all love is without any thought of gain; that is why it is so painful. The dark side of religion (Hindu caste system): I. Kave relates stories about the Brahmin women didn’t drink from the clean water brought by a non-Brahmin and employed it only for toilet purposes. She went on: “Then next morning we got up early as usual and went to the stream in order to wash. A large number of people were there, cleaning their teeth, washing their mouths, and spitting into the stream. However, the women in the Brahmin group apparently felt no hesitation, took their baths with usual cries of “O Ganga! O Bhagiratih!” and even washed their mouths with the water. Apparently the spitting of the members of other castes was not considered to pollute their bathing water in the stream, while the clean well water was considered polluted because it had been brought by a man of non-Brahmin caste!” She highlighted some important questions about which her mind was busy all the time. “Every day I regretted the fact that one and the same dindi was divided into two sections. All of the people were clean, and ate their food only after taking a bath. Then why this separateness? Was all this walking together, singing together, and reciting the poetry of the saints together directed only towards union in the other world while retaining separateness in this world? This question was in my mind all the time.” “We have been living near each other for thousands of years, but they are still not of us and we are not of them (the dark side of religion). With all our keenness to bow down before God Pandurang and all our willingness to suffer much hardship on account of that desire, we are daily showing contempt for the living gods beside us.” I. Kave cannot hide her bitter thoughts and her convulsion against social injustice. She asked herself: “Am I making a mountain out of a molehill for nothing?” “No,” she answered herself. “What about untouchables? Why they are judged by their exteriors, not by their devotions? The revulsion against social injustice is bound to be translated into action soon and not remain as mere platitudes in the verses of the saints. Are Brahmins are going to remain blind to this future? Ritual purity, pollution by one person and not by another—are we going to give up humanity and neighbourliness in the name of ritual purity?” Culture and literacy: Some people might be literate about a cultural event or concept but have no trace of understanding it. I. Kave expresses her angriness with the follower of monotheism- political, social, and ethical – particularly Christians, who, she claims, for the last two or three centuries have conquered and ruled different human societies all over the world and trampled upon their cherished values, are not likely to realize that: “Different human societies express their sense of beauty and sanctity, and the goodwill in their hearts, in different ways; to learn the value of these different manifestations and at least to try to understand what others believe before insisting that one’s own beliefs are the only right ones – is this not the sign of wisdom?” She goes on quoting the song “The quality of compassion is to love – to love without a thought of return.” And she added herself: “To love humanity without any desire for gain – is not that the means to true wisdom?” Comparison between formal education in the college and indirect education in pilgrimage procession: I. Kave expressed her real sense of awe: “I could never really find out how many songs, poems, and stories these illiterate women knew by heart. During the whole journey, I never heard the same song twice.” She compared the two process of learning. “Three characteristics of education were presented here: the preservation of traditional knowledge, its cultivation, and its transmission to next generation. This education was also many-sided. Besides religion and philosophy, the three arts of music, dancing, and drama were included in it, and also it compassed the living together for some time of the whole society.” Erotic representations in theatrical entertainments: “Erotic representations and imagery have been a part of religious festivals from very ancient times. In the olden Brahmanical sacrifices which went on for days and months, there were always some parts which were purely for amusement, for sexual excitements, and for entertainment. In fact there are some who insist that all drama originate in religion and magic. Why should such entertainment be obscene? It could well do without the sexual slant. The actors in these are half-educated persons. Their easiest ways to make people laugh are to use shameless gestures and sentences with a double meaning. This has been going on from very ancient times. If the low thoughts that are present in everybody’s mind can be given some outlet in this harmless way, occasional obscenity would be really a small price to pay.” Celibacy of Gurus vs. tender heart of women: By quoting a part of a poem, “O men, give up this life of enjoyment, adopt celibacy, and retire from the affairs of the daily life.” I, Kave criticises the social and religious customs: “When men become ascetic, the only thing they forgo is sex. Otherwise they are being well looked after. Even in the absence of a wife, they get tasty and well-prepared food: a mother or sister by blood or by sentiment cooks for them….It is always women who come forward to render service to such renouncers. Very often such devotion is completely without any ulterior motive. When I saw some women whose life had been devastated by early widowhood, lacking a family for her own children, but caring for the Guru, seeing that he got warm, tasty food, then I valued more the tender heart of the woman than the strict celibacy of the Guru….My thought used to wander into history. I wondered how and when the status of the householder in the Hindu social system had lost its honoured place, and how celibacy and renunciation had assumed more and more importance.” She then mentioned Lord Shri Krishna the lover of many women, and other myths of Hindu with their stories and desires of marriage and having children…and the love stories in their literature, begetting progeny and perpetuating the race. She asked how these were to be reconciled with celibacy and renunciation. I. Kave used Max Weber’s argument here, “While the merits of married life were being praised on the one side, the life of seclusion in the forest and the philosophy of the Upanishads was developing on the other. Buddhism and Jainism based themselves on the latter philosophy, propagating the great value of ascetic life and the worthlessness of the normal life of work and pleasure. But the popularity of the ascetic religion depended upon a peculiar social contradiction. The livelihood of the men and women who renounced the ordinary pursuits and lived the life of beggars with very few wants, ultimately needed the support of wealthy royal houses or the rich merchants who lived in the cities and not in the forests. A well-to-do and generous society of householders was the essential precondition for the edifice of a religion of the renunciation and asceticism. The history of this great transformation in the value system of the Hindus is as important as it is interesting.” Jealous God: I. Kave shares her interaction with an old man in the group and his judgment about a young woman with a sick baby, “…He said to me, “She is not the sort to do the pilgrimage. She cries when the child gets fever. One must be satisfied with whatever God gives us.” I was a little riled at this pontifical attitude and retorted. But the old man continued. “You know, Vitthal is a very hard God. If your heart gets entangled with something, he tears it out.” This reminded me of Jewish God and how He describes Himself in Jewish scriptures. “I got up, gave him some money for a cup of tea, and started walking, but not before I heard the words, “God, you thought I should drink some tea! O Pandurang! O Narayan!” The pains/maladies that only religion can relieve/cure: “…I also used to see and old woman off and on. Once somebody asked her, “Grandma, where are your children, your grandchildren? What do they do?” The old woman closed her eyes, her face became strangely desolate, and she began to shake. We all got frightened, went near her, and held her tightly with our arms. “Grandma, please wake up. Drink this water,” said I. Her frail body was shivering in my arms….After some time the old woman stopped shaking. Tears streamed down from her closed eyes and the dumb grief found words. She told her story. And what was her sorrow? Hers was of the same kind as the others: her only son had died in his early twenties. These sorrows were not the result of any social inequalities, nor were they caused by any political turmoil or war. These were human sorrows, and would disappear only when human beings disappear. They were there for the rich and for the poor, for the young and the old; they encompassed the whole of humanity.” We are making gods then we beg them: “…The old woman told her story, stopped, gave a deep sigh and said, “O Pandurang, one must live as you will.” I bit my lip and said to myself, “Yes, you can enjoy only that which He allows for your use. Only that which this greedy all-taking Lord does not take, remain for us.” And the words of the old man came back to my mind: “Pandurang is a very hard God! If your heart get entangled somewhere, he tears it out.” But God! Why do you let it get entangled in the first place? You allow it to be completely enveloped and then cruelly tear it to shreds. What greatness do you find in this? What pleasure do you get in bringing such tired, torn hearts, shedding tears of blood, to Your feet? Would it not be better if in the dawn of life, the blossoming flower in the mild early morning sun of happiness is plucked and used for Your worship?” The above last sentences reminded me of Kierkegaard’s remark in Seducer’s Dairy, when he says: “You whom I love with all the sympathy of my soul, why do you not make your appearance? Surprise me, I am ready. Stir up the water, break the silence. To starve me this way, is mean of you.” I. Kave the goes on, “Oh but I was out of my mind! The agony of the old woman made me forget the world for a moment. Who brings whom to his feet? It is all the play of the human mind. First it creates a God with qualities out of a completely indifferent, formless, and attributeless principle, then makes him the author of everything that happens, makes him the Lord of the Universe, and then says “We can only have what He does not take.”” “Every one of us was deep in her sad thoughts when one woman started singing, “I care not if I live or die, for my heart is ever with Thee, Pandurang.” All of us mingled our voices with hers. A moment later, the old woman also joined in her shaky voice: “Pandurang, I swear, my heart is with Thee.” After some time the shadows of sorrow melted away. All had their sorrows, and still we could bear them in each other’s company.” Liminality: The author described a few occasion that she or other pilgrims lose the ordinary sense of life and immersed in the atmosphere of ritual, specifically pilgrimage procession here. Let’s point at some of them: …I felt I was a drop in this vast stream of human beings. …Everyone was laughing and joking during the march. Nobody pressed people to join the pilgrimage. No public announcement of the programme was made, and the outside world must just as well not exist. …The pilgrims were intoxicated with happiness; anyone who had a heart, who had the insight, could have the same joy. In another passage: “The singer of that town had come with us for a couple of miles, and the morning’s songs tunefully sung by him and repeated after him by our group are still fresh in my ears. So absorbed was I that only after the singer had gone back did I realize that we had been walking in the rain for over an hour. And in some lighter remarks: …The mood of the group had definitely changes. I too breathed more easily….The tenderness of the poet had dispersed my gloom….When the games started, everybody forgot the hardships of the journey…. The repetition of God’s name was going on almost incessantly and helped to keep the spirit happy and calm in spite of the long and arduous marches. The realm of sacred vs. the realm of profane: “…He bent down and took up the dust on the road. God’s saints were passing today on this road. The dust under their feet was sacred. I too dipped my finger in the dust and put it to my forehead.” The above-quoted passage reminded me of Mircea Eliade’s viewpoint that in the realm of sacred the judgment of individuals are different from when they reside in the realm of profane and they have no problem with the irrationality of actions. We see here how a secular scholar such as the author of this paper imitated the so-called superstitious actions of ordinary people. At the end of procession I. Kave shares her feelings with the readers and describes her inability to get off of the sacred realm and back to the profane: “…I had an uneasy feeling –my eyes were filling again and again.…Then came the entrance gate to the town. But somehow I was feeling restless. I couldn’t see Him, who had been there, sometimes ahead of us, sometimes under a tree, and sometimes near the well. When I turned round, I saw His back and He was marching away in the opposite direction. “Why, Dark One, are You leaving too? Are You not coming into Pandharpur?” He smiled and shook his head. “Where are you off to?” Without a word, He merely waved His arm and began to walk fast. The black ploughed fields and the sky full of heavy black clouds soon engulfed that delicate dark figure with the blanket on His shoulder. And I stepped inside the gates of Pandharpur with streaming eyes, weary legs and a heavy heart. --The end— Page 1 of 5